I am a visitor in an unfamiliar city. I wander down an alley and find myself overlooking a square pit the size of a city block, dominated by a great tree that would rival the surrounding buildings in height were it not down in this hole. Its sprawling roots are often thicker around than a grown man, and in the spaces between those roots ferns and flowers grow with wild abandon. Any sign of the city’s ubiquitous concrete and steel within the pit is covered up with moss and vines. Even the grating of the fire escape-like stairs that I descend is intertwined with leafy creepers. Up close, I begin to suspect the great tree is in fact many trees grown and grafted and intertwined into one.
To find this seemingly forgotten green in the midst of this jungle of gray is a profoundly moving experience.
Later, back in my hotel, I have a dream, or perhaps a vision. A voice tells me that there is a second tree nearby the one I found, in a simir pit isoted from the city. This second tree is just as tall, but thinner, a singur trunk of white bark, like a birch but subtly off. Or perhaps not “off” but “more.” The grounds around this second tree are tidy and carefully maintained.
The voice tells me that there is a spiritual aspect to both trees. “My” tree of green is the tree of Nature and Life itself. The tree of white is the tree of a God of Light, well-meaning and benevolent in intent but arrogant enough to believe that he is alone in His divinity with a monopoly on virtue. Both trees are beset by illness. Pustules pgue their roots and must needs be nced and cleaned of their foul fluids to keep the trees healthy. The tree of white has a caretaker; a devotee of the God of Light. The voice beseeches me to convert her to care for the green.
The next morning my brother and I have a final, utterly mundane errand to attend to before we leave the city. That errand will take us near the trees and I wish to show them to my brother while I have the chance. The subway could take us close to our destination but it is not that far, so we choose to walk for additional sightseeing.
We get a little lost and come to another pit block, filled with water green from algae. Beneath the water I can see the stump of a great tree. For a moment I fear the tree I saw yesterday has been cut down, but then I glimpse its leaves over the top of the pit’s far wall. This flooded space is reted to the tree of green though in a way I can intuit but not quite articute.
We backtrack and find a narrow alleyway that should lead us around. An open door in the side of the alley with a rake leaned across its entrance reveals another secondary pit, this one housing a lush vegetable garden that nearly overflows the wide expanse in a riot of color. There are other tools around; signs that the vast garden is maintained, but currently there are no people. As the flooded area was linked to the tree of green, this garden is linked to the tree of white.
As we approach reach the end of the dark alleyway we come to an open door, through which light spills forth with a glimpse of the tree of white. We don’t realize until we step through that the door does not lead directly into the tree’s pit but into a small home or shack with a broad window overlooking the tree of white.
We walk in on a young woman watching anime on her phone while she leans against an isnd countertop in the middle of a room cluttered with electronics, housepnts, and gardening implements. There is a period of awkwardness as we make our apologies and expin the misunderstanding, but she is surprisingly welcoming. I ask what she was watching and she is happy to tell me. I do not recognize the title, but she makes it sound interesting enough that I make a mental note to look it up ter.
She appears to live here with a cat and two small dogs. One of the dogs, white and soft-furred, ys on the floor, looking out the open door by the end of the long window at the tree of white. The dog reminds me of one I had as a child and I kneel down to pet it. Its fur is curlier and woolier than I expect. It knocks me off bance and then crawls into my p. The woman ughs and comments on how the dog and I seem to have taken a liking to one another. I realize the dog is wearing sungsses.
I gather that this woman is the caretaker of the tree of white. I recall my charge from the voice, but do not have it in me to try to convert someone from their faith. And besides, I feel my own calling from the tree of green. Perhaps I should stay in this city and become that caretaker myself. I would have a kind enough neighbor at any rate.
