We live in a world where trees are sometimes seen as 'unnecessary' and 'obstacles' to 'progress.' About a half year after I moved here, we drove passed an elementary school - dozens of times we'd passed the school. But on this day, I looked over to where the towering ballerinas (coconut palm trees) once stood. I was horrified to witness their small stumps. My eyes filled with tears, and each time we passed after that, I had to look away.

I can't remember how many weeks or months later, the stumps were removed. The area was set up as a parking lot for the school's teachers and administration. As a society, as a people, here in Borikén, I thought 'how are we OK with this message we are sending to our children - to the future of our country, to the future of the world??

When I read about the fig or olive trees, when I think of the palm trees (I recall seeing them in videos of Palestine - they are palm trees, yes?), it breaks my heart.

Thank you for your poetry, for your humanity. Gracias for existing.