The walnut tree is not only a cultivated tree. In rural memory it becomes shade, food, medicine, timber and a meeting place. Knowledge of it passes from one generation to another through work, observation, stories and local speech.
This article presents a poem written in the dialect of Sitia. Its language carries the sound of place and cannot be transferred word for word without losing something essential. The English rendering below keeps the central images and ecological meaning while honouring the original’s local character.
The Walnut Tree
I stand with roots held deep in earth,
my branches open to the light;
in summer I give cooling shade,
in autumn, fruit held clean and bright.Hands have known my bark and leaves,
children rested at my side;
years move through the village road,
yet in the soil my stories bide.Care for water, earth and seed,
take what ripens, let me grow;
whoever learns to tend a tree
learns what future generations owe.
Poetry can be environmental education because it joins factual knowledge with affection. A tree protected only as an abstract resource remains distant. A tree remembered through taste, labour, dialect and family life becomes part of a community’s identity and is far harder to treat as disposable.
