Flores Silvestres de Puerto Rico

El mes pasado, paseando por el Viejo San Juan, entré a la librería La Tertúlia, que ahora está en un nuevo local mucho más espacioso.  No estaba buscando nada en particular, pero encontré este gran Tesoro...El libro Flores Silvestres de Puerto Rico, por los doctores Juan A Rivero y Miguel A Vives.  Es una joya de libro para los amantes de la naturaleza, en el, documentan sobre  200 especies de flores nativas silvestres y no tan silvestres, que florecen en suelo Borícua. 

Los Autores cuentan, que para poder hacer tan importante documentación, tuvieron que ir a donde estaban las flores, fotografiando por un período de 4 a 5 años.  Cuando mi amiga Wanda me escribió que venía a Puerto Rico de visita, me invitó a la finca de sus padres en el pueblo de Ciales. Pense que era el momento adecuado para llevar mi libro, y hacer "Flower Watching".  

Quedé sorprendida de lo hermoso del lugar donde los padres de Wanda tiene su Finca, además de ser gente hermosa, humilde y calida, ofrecerme uno de los mejores almuerzos que he comido, tener conversaciones como nunca antes, tomar café en su casita de café...además de todo esto, pude fotografiar más de 20 especies de flores distintas.  Un verdadero sueño.  A continuación les presento un puñado de ellas.  

Gracias Wanda por la invitación, y un día que nunca olvidaré.....

Puedes encontrar el libro en este enlace: 

Poet for Hire

I was strolling the streets of Old San Juan, when in the distance I saw a young men sitting on a bench, writing poems on a vintage typewriter, like it was the most normal thing anyone could ever do in public.   I approached him, and we started to talk a little.  -What do you do? "I write poems on request", he told me with a certain pride and fear at the same time.  Do you sell them? I replied..."Well, I just take tips, whatever you would like to donate".   Really? it was like watching a character from a movie, an Indie movie that would be.  He told me he was from New Orleans, and that he traveled the world with his old typewriter, discovering countries, spreading his words on paper and moving on.  A Wanderer....a Poet....an Artist...  

He ask me if I had a Poem request, then I noticed he had a paper in the typewriter, with a poem already finished.  What is that? I ask..."This is something I just wrote for a lady I saw, taking a picture of me...She thought I didn't saw her, but I did..." Then, I read, the poem, and just like that, he transported me to that very moment, that I have had thousands of it.  When I travel, when I wander, I'm always looking for that special second that my eyes caught something so unique, that I decide to capture it with my camera phone.  And sometimes, I want to capture the moment, without disrupting it.  So, suddenly, after finishing reading it, I became that lady in the poem.  I ask for it to be mine, I tipped him, gave him words of encouragements, and left him sitting there, "simply a sack of words on a wooden bench" with his RARE tattoo in his fingers..... Kevin Thorne, you are not so rare at all.