14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 1 April 2023 — It took three months for the Christmas pine planted in the Fe del Valle Park, in Centro Habana, to deteriorate. The tree, which last December was filled with lights – the first public New Year’s decoration that Cubans had seen in six decades – is now withered, with dry leaves and fallen branches.
Its appearance is unfortunate and is not fitting with winter, commented the residents of Galiano street, the same ones who took photos next to the conifer during Christmas, which the Government hastened to strip of all spiritual symbolism. The pine was part, they said, of a “comprehensive initiative” of the Avenida Italia project, with which the European country wanted to thank the presence of Cuban doctors during the pandemic in various locations on its territory.
So, the pine was not a Christmas sign but a very socialist “Friendship Tree”, as the Cuban press renamed it. Once that purpose was fulfilled, the trunk is barely holding up and is in need of three props, ribbons and cords to prevent it from falling on those who walk through Galiano.
The greyish trunk and the sparse foliage, of an imprecise color, are symptomatic of the poor health of the specimen, whose survival seems unlikely to those who pass by. “Is the pine tree dying?” A boy asked his mother, who was trying to avoid the area so as not to run the risk that the tree, which looked weak and sickly, might fall on them.
“A lot of sewage water and too much humidity in that substrate”, diagnosed one of the old people sitting in the park. “Pines need semi-sandy soils, not the muck from Centro Habana”.
Translated by Norma Whiting
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