Michel's Blazing Yellow

Among the coordinates the sanctuary keeps secret, there is a plant that one Sunday refused to go unnoticed. Michel Salas found it in full bloom — a Caesalpinia of the family Fabaceae — wearing that blazing yellow, the kind that seems stolen from a Caribbean sunrise. The filiform stamens opened like small, silent fireworks, and between the branches hung elongated pods — some green, others dark — a sign that life moves quickly in this plant. The tree grows surrounded by generous company: banana plants casting it in shade, pink and orange bougainvilleas competing with it for color, and a partly clouded sky that on March 22nd couldn't quite decide between rain and stillness. The four photographs Michel took that day captured open flowers, budding growth, and the full bearing of the individual — a complete portrait of a plant that now has a name, coordinates, and a place in the sanctuary's logbook.