film of the month

The Tree and The Chrysalis

“After an unjust death, there is nothing to say. Nothing at all. As will become plain below.

From the branch of an olive tree, there hung a tiny chrysalis the color of emerald. Tomorrow it would be a butterfly, freed from its cocoon. The tree was happy to see his chrysalis grown, but secretly he wanted to keep her a few more years. As long as she remembers he’d shielded her from gusts, saved her from ants, but tomorrow she would leave to affront predators and poor weather alone. That night, a fire ravaged the forest, and the chrysalis never became a butterfly. At dawn, the ashes cold, the tree stood still, but his heart was charred, scarred by the flames, scarred by grief. Ever since then when a bird alights on the tree, the tree tells it about the chrysalis that never woke up. He pictures her wings spread flitting across a clear blue sky, drunk on nectar and freedom, the discreet witness to our love stories.”