A Small Tree in Brooklyn

She grew up in a ghetto neighborhood in Brooklyn with a tree outside her window. Neighbors said it was a tree of paradise, the only tree that can grow in concrete. She talked to the tree every day, but the tree never answered. When she grew up, she became a botanist and traveled all over the world looking for this kind of tree, but she never found it. When I got older and returned to Brooklyn, I found that the tree had been cut down and only the stump remained. She sat on the tree stump and cried. A child came and asked, "Grandma, what are you crying for?" She said, "I have been looking for the tree all my life, and it turns out that it has been growing in my heart." The child pointed to the tree stump and said, "Look, it has sprouted again."