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world. Maybe these bonsais were a little like me, cut from
their original destiny but following their path, making things
more different for others…
Photo courtesy of: http://www.usda.gov
The older man explained the art of cultivating the trees
and advised me on some procedures. On our way to the main
gate, he showed me the miniature pond of the nursery. He
dipped his fingers into the fresh liquid, rubbing the backs of the
gold fish.
There was a natural in this man that told about the purity of his
soul.
I could not resist patting fish in return, touched.
I did not know more friendly companions than goldfishs. They
looked comic, sucking the tips of your fingers or releasing a
bubble of oxygen as they looked straight at you. Could they
see us or did they just feel us? Most animals had a poor vision
or saw differently than we do. Maybe I would never get a
straight answer.
Now, I was reading in my encyclopaedia of plants:
"Ginkgo biloba. A unique tree. The only survivor of
primitive, ancient plant family. A conifer, but has deciduous,
fan-shaped leaves with lovely golden yellow leaf color in fall.
Very resistant to insects and disease!"
In one way, I thought, he gave me part of himself.
The gardener did not give me solutions, but he replaced my
seedlings by others. Could we replace trees we learned to love
by others?
He had explained that he loved that species over all other tree
species. Funny! I thought. This is maybe one of the rare trees
whose leaves are deeply veined and whose texture look like
tree trunks. I did not really like them myself, but everybody
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loved something unique, I thought, not because it was truly
unique, but because it was unique to our heart.
The man left me with a few words:
"Since you are a foreigner, you put all your efforts in being
accepted by people, isn't it?"
"Yes," I replied, "that's why I began talking to people I
would never be in contact with in my native land. Sometimes
you do not want to be in contact with persons who do not have
a clean appearance -- like you do not want to be in contact with
certain plants"
"Poison ivy might be one?"
"Right!"
"But as a lover of nature, you have to force yourself. I have
traveled al over he world myself. This is how you learn to see
the heart and forget about he appearances. Traveling is going
through a spiritual growth, you add layers like trees add layers
to their trunk each year. And it is hard."
" I guess to learn how to truly communicate is like
educating my bonsais. You firstly have to make the trees
suffer. Bonsai have hard time to adjust to unnatural conditions,
but they slowly adapt and become healthy. They are a
reflection of the world, a mirror of the world as the Japanese
mean it. Through miniature trees, you see the world better.”
"In my religion, Islam, it is prescribed to be kind and
generous towards travelers. You give him money and shelter.
The one who travels carries the world inside himself, you see.
And I truly feel each time I meet a new person, I can really feel
that I have a portion of the world inside me, to offer, that
reaches out."
"Now, reach for new trees, " he said putting the seedlings in
my hands, "and see what you can do for these."
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