A Totumo That Arrived on Its Own

There are things the forest does without anyone asking. Jorge Alcalá and Michel Salas were walking through the understory of the sanctuary, in the northeast corner of the reserve, when they saw it: a young totumo — Crescentia cujete — rising from the earth entirely on its own, with no human hand to sow it or coax it along. Lance-shaped leaves, bright green, standing firm over a bed of dry leaves surrounded by dense vegetation. It was born alone. The totumo is a tree of deep history in these Caribbean lands. From its round fruits, indigenous peoples carved totumas and maracas; today its seeds travel with the wind and with the animals that carry its fruits. That one should have chosen this corner of the sanctuary to take root is, in itself, a sign that the place holds what life needs to hold on. Jorge and Michel photographed it, noted the coordinates, and left it exactly as they found it. Sometimes fieldwork is just that: discovering what is already happening, and bearing witness to it.