The mamón de mico That Never Loses Its Green

Alejandro arrived at the sanctuary with a branch in hand and a single certainty: the mamón de mico is always green. The tree, known to science as *Melicoccus bijugatus*, stands alive and active somewhere within the 520 hectares of Fundación Loros, offering its small yellow fruits even when the season would ask nothing of it. And yet, the branch Alejandro photographed against a weathered wooden board told another story between its lines. The round little fruits and glossy leaves were flecked with dark spots — signs that might point to a disease, or to some pest quietly doing its work in the shadows. The fruit's advanced ripeness alongside those marks together form a warning, one the team made careful note of recording. For now, the tree holds on and keeps its green. But the image rests in the field log as a reminder that in this sanctuary, one must look not only at whether something lives — but at how it lives.