The seeds of avellana

Written down by Lourdes Carpio Salas, schoolgirl in Platería, Lake Titicaca

Once there was a boy who sat on a stone in a field and ate avellana fruits he had brought with him. He threw the seeds on the ground. On the way to his acre, an old man passed by. He saw the seeds, picked them up and carried them to a moist spot, where he planted them. The boy watched the scene, laughed and mocked the old man. But the old man said to him:

“Why are you ridiculing the fact that I am seeding? You certainly do not know that when I return to this spot, I will find a beautiful tree which gives us plenty of fruit. And if I will not enjoy its fruit, others will do.”

Many years had passed. The boy had become a successful business man when he returned to the place from a distant city where he worked. The way was far and the land barren. Walking was difficult for him, because he was hungry; the heat and the thirst were unbearable. In this condition, he came to a large tree which was full of avellana fruits. The boy could relax in its shadow and eat some of the fruits in order to satisfy his thirst. At once he remembered that he had eaten these fruits when he was a child. Back then, he had thrown the seeds on the ground and an old man had picked them up.

So he said to himself that the seeds which this old wise man had sown had to be the fruits that revitalise travellers today. He blessed his reminiscence of the man and from this day forth he always sowed and cultivated a seed as long as it had prospered.

In: Asociación Qolla Aymara, Cuentos de mi Comunidad, edited with the support of terre des hommes, Puno 2003