The Mango Tree is a Therapist!

Our seats under the Mango Tree.

For as long as I have known my ancestral home, trees have been a big part of it. It’s shaded in trees of all sorts, some as old as over 100 years, I recently learned. The mango tree on the other hand is not that old, in fact it is as old as when I started coming to the homestead! It was just a wee sapling in the early nighties when it was planted some meters from the front door and over the years i have watched it grow, produce mangoes and most importantly, provide a meeting point for me and Dad, under the shade, sheltered from the sun, talking about life and experiences in general.

Just like it took time for the mango tree to grow, building my relationship with my dad also took time and went through many stages. The stage of my being angry at everything, the transactional stage which also ran through some of my angry stages, our slow and gradual bonding over reading and family shenanigans and finally the stage of open and honest conversation. Most of the latter has taken place under the mango tree, with its perfect shade, cool breeze blowing around it with a 360 degree of the homestead. It has been the perfect equivalent of a therapist's couch.

We now sit in perfect companionship, with ease of conversation as I try to absorb as much information from the encyclopedia that is the man. His life experiences, my early years as a child, in his life, his work and life in general. I love the ease that we have now. How we somehow think alike, how we can disagree without disagreeing. The exchange of ideas. I am grateful for the time that I have been allowed to spend with him and the chance it has given me to learn about my identity, heritage and history. Who knew that the humble mango sapling would grow to be the therapist that we both needed.