Jender Plants His Garden in Los Guardianes

Bent over the dry, clay-heavy earth of Los Guardianes, Jender — caretaker of this corner of the reserve — opened holes one by one to receive the seedlings that had arrived that day: sapote, papaya, anón, limón, and guama. With his hands buried in the soil, unhurried, he transplanted each plant around his own home, like someone who is not only tending a territory but putting down roots in it. The ground at Los Guardianes is hard and dry, as good tropical soil tends to be — one that holds drought close to the surface. But there were the seedlings, their leaves green and bright, some still damp from the journey, waiting for the earth to take them in. No one counted how many there were in total — those things are sometimes better measured with time, once they are already bearing fruit. There is something particular about planting fruit trees around your own house: it is a gesture that thinks in years to come, in the shade and the harvests that you don't always live to see grow. Jender knows this, even if he never says so.