Flash (Non)Fiction Day 7: Someone’s life takes on new meaning after they discover an unusual tree.

 Prompt: Someone’s life takes on new meaning after they discover an unusual tree.

Photo by me: Savinia, Mauritius.

I was only a child the first time I met the banyan tree. It was larger than life, taller than all the adults, and stronger than my uncle. My grandfather used to work in a laboratory somewhere amid the sugarcane fields, and he had brought us over to the ruins of what had once been his workplace. He always had so many stories, all of them about his life and the various jobs he had tried getting into. I would like to hear them again, this time without the dreamy fog of childhood colouring my memories.

The banyan tree lives in my memory as this wondrous, magical being that came to life in the warm breeze one could feel almost everywhere on the island. I was too young then to know how important it was, too preoccupied with the swing someone had crafted out of the hanging vines to notice its sheer power. Oh, to be the banyan tree, surrounded by children’s laughter, the sickly-sweet scent of sugarcane, tropical sunshine, torrential rains, and the sea air. To be strong enough to carry people, to withhold storm after storm, and to stay grounded, roots deep in the nourishing earth. To be the banyan tree…

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This one turned out more personal and less fictional than I intended when I first started writing it. Please hold my memories gently.