In past years, I have written in praise of our beautiful Moringa tree. Actually we originally had two, leggy and spindly, with bright lacy leaves and white flowers adored by our Carpenter Bees.
My last report, three years ago, confirmed that the tree was thriving. It had acquired clumps of mistletoe (which is parasitic, so perhaps in retrospect not a good thing?) Not long after that, disaster struck. A harsh wind came along one day, and snapped its fragile trunk. It struggled, but most of it died.
Not all of it. Determinedly, new shoots appeared. It has a neighbouring neem tree, which seems very hardy, and perhaps this has protected it. Anyway, our Moringa tree has settled. It now reclines at a rather acute angle over our roof. I sometimes hear it tapping gently over our bedroom ceiling. This morning when I opened the window, I surprised a Jamaican Woodpecker, who was on the tree. Perhaps he is doing the tapping.
The Moringa is now flowering, and producing seed pods. New green shoots are growing, pointing straight up, along its ragged old branch.
Our Moringa tree can teach us something about survival. Not only that, but something that is broken should not be thrown away.
Give it a chance. It can grow again.
I posted this on my Substack page, which I update almost daily with observations on life and everyday happenings. These are very short, one/two-minute reads. If you would like to subscribe for free to my posts there (they don't usually overlap with my blog) you can go to: https://petchary.substack.com Looking forward to seeing you!
In the foreground, the old, surviving branches of our Moringa, with the shoots growing straight up to the light - and also, a seed pod. In the background (top right) is our neem tree, and (bottom right) our lignum vitae. (My photo)
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