Under a Fig Tree and My Connection with Nature
By: Tiago Miranda
Tags: Vision, Philosophy, Nature, Science, Awareness

Under a Fig Tree and My Connection with Nature

A relationship otherwise unknown by many

Source: T. Miranda 2020

Why should I sit on a park bench if I have a tree?

Not a normal tree though. A type of tree that provides free park benches. The ones that once raised from the ground it resembles a curved stonewall, with fissures similar to a badly done plastering job. The kind of bench that kids cannot wait to let go of their parent’s hands to climb on it.

The design looks like a huge octopus overextending its tentacles, with swirling shapes and coarse texture. This natural seat is nothing more than a buttress root. There are several types of buttress roots or root flair (another similar name amongst tree species). But this one is a large fig tree (Ficus macrophylla).

It is so big that if you lie down on the root flair, you cannot even see where the canopy finishes. Humongous. Such a surreal experience when you feel embraced by a big tree, resembling at once your mom’s lap. I cannot even describe in words. That is why you do not need park benches for the most adventurous ones.

As I was seated and appreciating the noises surrounding the park, I could not tell if I were close to the city or not. So close that as soon as you leave the canopy cover where I was standing, cars and trucks take over your ears.

For one minute, I felt contemplated by nature amidst the urban area. Trees are intercalated within a respected distance in this park. Most of them are mature Figs, London planes, Norfolk pines and Eucalyptus. Mature I mean tall and large. The kind of large that even vicious tree huggers would walk away in desolation.

For while, my bum feels like a heavy square plate and the natural becomes unpleasant. A good sign that it is time to move on. Though, as soon as I stood on both feet, a crackling noise of leaf litter called my attention.

Do you know that same feeling stepping on leaves when you were a kid? I am aware that for most of us it is hard to recall, but for those of easy memory, I felt the same thing.

My attention revolved towards the ground.

The Nonstop Moving Sphere

You can tell the stages of the decomposing process whilst looking at green and brown leaves on the floor. Normally, the old ones are underneath where initiates their progression into becoming organic matter. It is worthwhile a quick sweep of the leaves. You can see the wet black soil and notice that is much warmer than at the surface, especially in winter.

Sounds of dropping fruits are a common noise whilst standing under a flowering tree.

Source: T. Miranda 2020

Hence, the wind plays with the tree crown, squeezing through the stems, slapping its leaves and rotating like a tiny windmill. The leaves produce peculiar sounds. It is similar to an African origin instrument, with a sharp progressive noise that sticks in your mind for at least a few minutes.

This sound from flapping leaves due to the wind has an interesting contrast with another company — a bird of a kind. Parrots and honeyeaters are the common visitors, including red wattlebird, lorikeets, rosellas, galahs, cockatoos and much more what South Australia can offer.

Coming back to the ground before I get distracted by the natural symphony above me, I decided to poke my finger into the soil. Amazingly enough, it is more alive than I thought.

With a bit of digging effort, it did not take long to find earthworms — one of the essential decomposers of our ecosystems. I was stunned.

Since I used to play with them when I was a kid, I have not had a close encounter like this one in years. If I put a soil sample under the microscope, I might see millions of other decomposers, such as bacteria and fungi. This is the nature’s interrelationship at your fingertips.

Source: T. Miranda 2020

I think we sort of guess that the only way to understand nature is by delving into a graduation course and become doctors. I believe there are other doors available to be opened by the most ordinary individual.

The only pre-requisite to understand science, or I should say two, are having respect and curiosity. Then questions may arise, but do not be afraid. These questions are your friends, and with them, you might have a deeper exploration of our diverse ecosystems.

Without them, you may feel empty, dubious, solitary and willing to find sense before you fall into frustration. The common end of someone deluded about the unknown is the old “God” search.

A search that not necessary could take you away from nature appreciation but may stop you from being curious and sceptical — the two most important things towards something bigger than us.

No, I am not talking about a deity.

I am talking about the Universe, and its functioning process instead.

Even after reading this text you are still not convinced that you could be a citizen scientist, please bear with me in the next few paragraphs then.

Source: T. Miranda 2020

An Experiment

Walk to your nearest park, find a bench ideally under a tree (or a root flair), bring your lunch and just close your eyes. Notice all the sounds, the different sounds of each bird, wind and the leaves. Feel the wind in your face and listen to the old leaves landing on the floor.

And then, open your eyes again, and invite yourself to join in this conversation without words. But remember that they are talking amongst themselves in a different language.

A language that pushes you to explore by physical signs, which you may identify a certain type of communication. You are just a spectator. That is when you start realising there is much more than a designer, a deity behind the curtains.

This natural exploration is the “drug” that Charles Darwin, Bertrand Russel, Richard Dawkins, Thomas Jefferson, Christopher Hitchens, Stephen Fry, Neil De Grasse Tyson, Carl Sagan and many more have got hooked up for the rest of their lives. You might be the next one, just like me.

This “drug” is the profound accumulation of natural knowledge that forever recedes without a return ticket. I do recommend for once to let it blow your mind. Let humbleness takes over and you will then realise, fellow citizen scientist, that the world is full of surprises.