The Mamón That Carries Epiphytes in Silence

In the secondary forest of Fundación Loros, where the dry earth holds carpets of fallen leaves and the cut trunks hold memories of older stories, Michel Salas stopped before a tree that had no need to announce itself. It was a mamón — Melicoccus bijugatus, of the family Sapindaceae — its grey, sturdy trunk splitting upward into branches that weave a generous canopy against the overcast sky. Along its bark, almost like discreet tenants, grow epiphytic plants that might be bromeliads or ferns, settled in without asking permission. That Sunday, Michel recorded no fauna visiting the tree — no loros, no birds, nothing stirring among its branches. But the mamón was there, standing firm at coordinates 10.4473, -75.2618, its shallow roots spreading across the earth like quiet fingers. Sometimes a tree needs no witnesses to matter; it is enough that someone finds it and says: here it is, it exists, we saw it.