For about a year in a lunch with my cousin, among many issues that we talked a story she told me caught my attention. It was about the old existing fig trees at the square that we watched from the restaurant window, close to the school she had studied.
      The memory of a little story made me think about the facts and about the things of life. Facts that mark the lives of people but they are gradually being forgotten by people.
      Plant a tree, reap its fruits, time passing, passing years... many years... no one remembers who planted it... but its beauty, its flowers and its fruits remain there for all years.
      I refer to facts that undeniably sensitized who practiced them, and that somehow remain alive through its testimonies; sensitizing who also holds to see them more closely.
      I reflected on it to look again at the square for those trees, and watch the passersby indifferent to that all, very busy with their chores. I felt a certain melancholy.
      After lunch, we walk out there to look better.
      I thought of how many times I had also passed indifferently over there... On the other hand, also I remembered how many times my kids played there... and how many other children in the same way, ran, played, breathed, learned, made friends, felt life... spent his childhood...
      I had the clear perception of how much energy the life spans of time, and how much is able to move through life; just off of indifferent...
      A nice experience I lived from the memory of my cousin. So, I asked her to write it, even briefly, so I could share it with you; she readily accepted and I transcribe below.
Ruy Luiz Machado


"A long time ago I heard this story, but I remember how it was told me.
- In a very special feast day, children from a school nearby were here carrying 10 small fig tree seedlings, and planted in sites already demarcated.
The fig trees were positioned in pairs on either side of this beautiful square.
Time passed and fig trees grew...
Today only 7 of them survive to witness this event, which is part of the memory of our city."
Maria Teresa Machado


P.S. - Near one of the fig trees there is a very small sign where you can read:
1 - There are about 755 species of fig trees in the world.
2 - Fig trees of this square are the species of .