The indio encuero that embraces the forest

Somewhere within the dense vegetation of the reserve, José Marín stopped before a tree that could not be overlooked: an indio encuero —Bursera simaruba— standing some twenty meters tall, its trunk splitting into several arms from the base, as if the earth itself had wished to multiply it. The reddish, smooth bark, so characteristic of the species, gleamed against the deep green of the foliage pressing in from all sides. Everything around it spoke of a forest in good health: a closed canopy, high species diversity, no visible signs of recent disturbance. The indio encuero is well known throughout the Colombian Caribbean for its resilience — it endures drought, resprouts with ease, and offers shelter and sustenance to the local fauna. This particular individual, its twisted branches reaching out in every direction, seemed to have been part of the landscape for decades without anyone having formally recorded its presence. José documented the find with two photographs and marked the coordinates. And so it enters the field log: an old tree, solid and sure, with its roots sunk deep into the land of Fundación Loros.