Dear Editor,
One reason for being attracted to the weekly column titled as above is the sentimental memories the actual tree evokes. In very young days it stood tall and elegant, strategically separated from the threatening crowd of surrounding overgrown vegetation, which yet allowed for privacy. It was exactly there enquiring couples would meet on ‘dates’, sneakily, all too briefly, having escaped from our respective parents located at (walking) distances – between Georgetown and as far as Plaisance Village on the East Coast. In those days Georgetown was bordered by Vlissengen Road on the East. Imagine the bushy terrain (and mosquitoes) with which we had to cope. So that our bondings were breathless, after long walks through barely distinguishable mud tracks.
But it was the too brief encounters of privacy which rated expectations, if not substantive appetites. We spent more time negotiating when to meet again all in the hope that our absences, however fleeting or extended, would not be noticed at our homes. On reflection The Conversation Tree would have overheard so many whispered undertakings, and wondered how many, if ever, would have been fulfilled. As development of the area took place and roads constructed years later, we would bypass first the isolated green memorial until eventually it disappeared, unnaturally. Now as one commutes down the East Coast public road towards the city, and is about to turn left, the once darkened rendezvous is now exposed to overpowering traffic lights that are indifferent to whomever is forced to wait – over the long buried roots of past ‘Conversations’ – onto a parallel highway of preoccupied commuters, young and old, but not old enough to know. (Just see the scene below)
So that it is good to reminisce over the symbolic image in the Sunday column – The Conversation Tree. Incidentally the weather was more reliable in our time, so that umbrellas were hardly necessary. Of course the darkness was enough – no need to mask our faces; only the will to endure the biting mosquitoes (in the absence of any repellant). This generation however, unaccustomed to bonding ‘dates’, transmit their feelings at any hour of the day or night – ‘virtually’ – from any distance, well past The Conversation Tree. One wonders how ‘biting’ the effect is.
Sincerely,
E.B. John
