The Island of Missing Trees

by Elif Shafak

But legends are there to tell us what history has forgotten.

I knew they got lost occasionally, passerine birds.

dioecious – that means each tree is distinctly female or male.

monoecious, they bear both male and female flowers on the same tree.

Sort of a hemaphrodite?

As you aged you cared less and less about what others thought of you, and only then could you be more free.

Maybe? I don’t actually believe this and I am 67 years old.

The more visible an animal’s eyes, the more sympathy it will receive from humankind.

Really? Do we like sharks?

ancestors – can they, too, continue to exist through us?

They are not a part of us like the Fig Tree. The tree is a physical part of the original. We are part of two people, our parents, but totally independent from them.

‘She was pretty, yeah, but was she nice, that’s another question.’

Can’t you be both?

fig tree seven times while burning incense and uttering the right words in the right order, you can change the sex attributed to you at birth.

That’s quite a reach. So far fetched.

Because they always stop people like me, don’t they?’ She

Or maybe they stop you because you are bringing in fruit and goods that need to be inspected. Don’t cry victimhood.

Tripe Soup

To me this is disgusting. Made me gag.

keep the tongue in your mouth a prisoner. Wisdom consists of ten parts: nine parts of silence, one part of words.’