TREES

Natural Marvels

Sustaining life that no-one can dispute. They also live longer than any other organism on Earth.

They are everywhere we go and yet, do we really pay close, very close, attention to them? Photo taken by the author this past autumn at Thornes Park in England

When I was growing up, I did not care about trees. What child would? I looked at the trees in our yard as mere sources of sweet, delicious fruits.

Or, when my strict grandfather was not looking, I regarded the frangipani tree as my secret help in looking outside the four-feet garden walls.

This tree, which we call calachuchi in the Philippines, had a bifurcated trunk. The other trunk grew horizontally by about three feet, and then grew upwards again.

For a seven-year-old, it was an easy climb. I’d sit on the horizontal part of the bifurcated trunk, and enjoy eating sweets while watching the other kids play. (I was not allowed to play with friends in the street.)

Oh, to be young again with no cares!

The frangipani tree of my childhood had similar lovely flowers, with the trunk so thick that it carried the weight of a primary-school kid whose legs swung back and forth while eating sweets and watching the other kids play in the street. Image by Amit Kumar from Pixabay

But I did not really care for the frangipani tree. It richly bloomed with flowers which I avoided to touch, much less to sniff. The elders said that frangipani flowers were for the dead and like any kid, I believed it.