Ancient Ceiba of Vieques

The Ceiba tree is the national tree of Puerto Rico. It is a symbol of hope and resilience. One of the most beautiful ancient Ceiba trees is this one located in Vieques.

When one visits a tree of extraordinary size everyone shares in the awe.  The enormous timespan that a tree has lived through becomes apparent in the reach of its enormous limbs. People start to talk about the things the tree has seen and the historical events it witnessed. The personhood of the tree is fully awknowledged. The ups and downs of cultures and nations suddenly seem like nothing, but gentle waves that wash against its trunk.

We drove our little golf cart up to the Parque La Ceiba de Vieques. A rain storm had just washed through the area and not another human was in sight. We were alone with the ancient creature.
The tree was enormous.

Brilliantly, concrete benches had been placed in a circle around it with ample distance to take in the full view. We sat for a while then got up to look more closely. With each step the tree grew bigger I realized that all the while my brain had tried to compensate for an error, had told me that the tree must surely be smaller, than it really was. When one finally stands close enough to the trunk to touch it there is no more negotiating with reality. Both of us just mouthed a silent exclamation: “Wow!”.

The tree is so big that different parts of it are going through different seasons. While one part of the tree stands in full flower, another has ripe fruits and yet another just lost its leaves. The limbs look like the spans of a Suspension bridge, yet the tree needs no steel cables. You can hide a little league team between each of the flat wall-like buttress roots. And the giant thorns on the trunk clearly evolved to fend of Mega Fauna like a Giant Sloth. To a human they look more like a climbing aid than a deterrent.
What an honor to meet you, ancient tree!