Sometimes you live with something so long that it becomes part of your background, like a familiar corner of a room or a sound you stop noticing. That’s how it was with the palm tree in front of my house. It’s always been there, tall and calm, watching the street, holding the sky in its fronds. I pass by it every day, barely giving it a glance, like most people do with the things that have always existed in their lives. But that tree is more than bark and leaves. It holds the memory of someone who shaped my life in ways I only fully understand now.
When I was a child, my grandfather spent most of his afternoons in the garden. I would sit beside him, legs crossed in the dirt, watching his hands move through soil like he was reading a book no one else could see. He used to say plants were like people, each with their own rhythm and silence. The palm was just a tiny thing when he planted it, just a bit taller than I was back then. I remember the way he patted the earth around it like he was tucking it in, whispering something under his breath that I couldn’t quite catch. Maybe it was a hope or a promise, I don’t know. I just remember the quiet weight of that moment.
Years passed and I grew taller, and so did the tree. At some point, I stopped sitting in the garden. I stopped asking about the plants. Life pulled me in other directions, the way it does. But the tree kept growing. It didn’t ask for attention or praise. It simply stretched toward the sun, season after season. And then, one day, my grandfather wasn’t around anymore. He left behind his old boots, some worn-out gloves, and this tree. For a while, I avoided looking at it. It felt like too much. But grief has a way of softening over time, and eventually, I started noticing it again. Not just as a tree, but as a part of him that stayed.
Back then, I didn’t realize how much gardening had taught me. Not just how to prune or water, but how to care. How to pay attention. My grandfather never gave long speeches, never told me how to live. But he showed me. With every seed he buried, with every sprout he protected from the heat or rain, he was saying something about patience and love. The palm is a reminder of that. It’s not just a tree that offers shade on hot days or drops coconuts now and then. It’s a living timeline. It’s proof that something planted with care can grow even in the middle of city pavement and noise.
Underneath all the branches and roots, there’s a story that no one else sees. It’s in the way the leaves rustle differently depending on the time of day. It’s in how I catch myself smiling when I sweep fallen pieces off the sidewalk. Sometimes I think people expect memories to live in photo frames or old clothes, but for me, it’s this palm. It’s rooted in front of the house I’ve always called home, just like he once was. And even though I rarely talk about it, even though most people walk by without a second thought, I know it’s bigger than it looks. Bigger than a palm tree...
All photographs and content used in this post are my own. Therefore, they have been used under my permission and are my property.
