Green spaces

When I first arrived in Boliqueime about a decade ago, I used to gaze at the large town planning map on the wall in the local authority offices. On it, there were lots of areas marked espaço verde – green space. This impressed my inner environmentalist, although my well-established inner cynic knew that these green spaces were merely incidental, and that zoning would not have occurred that many years ago.

The largest such space zoned as a green space, is perhaps five or six acres in extent, and lies in the middle— between the upper part and the lower part— of the village.

The other day, I decided to walk from the top down to the bottom via an alternative route, which is shorter than the usual one I take. It was also easier, for this route merely progresses down hill, unlike the other one, with an unnecessary uphill stretch demanding more effort.

A different route meant a different view of the green space, and I was stuck by its beauty on this fine day.

I was disappointed by the photo, since it does not reflect just how much green I could see. As you can tell, this is no carefully manicured square of lawn amidst city blocks, but rather a piece of natural land left entirely to its own devices.

My disappointment at not capturing the intensity of the green in this space was soon curtailed by my surprise at seeing a self-sown olive tree, hiding amidst a clump of brown grass and other green stuff at the roadside.

This unobtrusive demonstration of the sustainability of doing nothing delighted me. I noted, too, that the nearest adult olive tree was about four metres away. You don’t see things like this when driving past in a car.

©2019 Allison Wright