My brother and I were wandering around the wild backyard of our grandmother’s house the when we came across a vine that looked similar to Chinola - passion fruit. As a familiarly devious smirk appeared on his face my brother asked me if I wanted to know the plant. In my naivety I said, as I always do when he asks, “Yes, I want to learn everything.” “Segura?” he asked, “Are you sure?” “Yes…” With a ‘suit your self’ sort of shrug he touched the plant to my arm, just barely and paused, watching my face. “What?” I asked … and then my arm burst into flames. Not just the flames of fire…more like fiberglass on fire…inside my arm. At this point I was physically uncomfortable but relieved with my new ability to identify a plant that I was going to be sure never to touch again. “Sigue” he said, walking away – continue. Obediently I followed him, exclaiming aloud the pain to his delight as we continued walking down through the forest toward the river. Passing it nonchalantly he pulled a couple leaves off a small tree, I wasn’t going to ask which one this time, cursing myself for being so curious. With these leaves in one hand he grabbed my arm and crushed them into my skin, the pain evaporating instantly…And there are people who say it’s more difficult to teach environmentalism here.
I have spent a ton of time with him learning the plants, trees and birds of our region. I know more about the plants here than I do about the ones in Michigan I think! These pictures are from one of our many hikes. After hours of exploring we ended up at a natural infinity pool. The pictured waterfall flowed into a small natural pool where we swam over looking the gorgeous valley pictured above.
This is me sitting on the edge thinking, "Is this really where I live?"
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment