The Orejero That Bloomed in the Rain

On the hill of Los Guardianes del Paraíso, Omar Enrique Berdugo Cabeza was walking through the rain when he came upon an orejero — Enterolobium cyclocarpum — that seemed to have dressed itself in celebration just to receive him. The tree, one of the great native giants of the Colombian Caribbean, carried upon its branches an entire garden of epiphytic plants: mosses, ferns, and climbing vines that had turned each limb into a world of its own. The air smelled of wet earth, and a cool breeze drifted down from the hillside. It was the rain that revealed the best of the landscape. Over the white petals of the orejero, droplets shimmered like tiny mirrors beneath the overcast sky, and among the dense vegetation of the slope, Omar also spotted a wild amaranth plant — possibly Amaranthus sp. — its pale, whitish spikes soaked through and standing upright against the deep green of the forest. Two photographs and a video remained as testament to what can happen when one dares to walk in the rain with wide-open eyes.