An Avid Reader Trapped in The Island of Missing Trees
The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak is not just a book. It’s a treasure trove of information. The Island of Missing Trees as a book is nothing less than a tree of knowledge partially if not in its entirety. The fact that one of the main narrators of the story is a Fig Tree is a unique form of storytelling. Verily, only Elif Shafak can come up with such a bizarre yet believable concept. And when the author proves with evidence that it was a fig tree which was the tree of knowledge and it is a fig Adam and Eve ate. All this information on the misinformation will keep your head reeling with the knowledge boom. There is no hunger like the hunger for knowledge. The more information you are fed. The less satiated you feel.
The author confirms the presence of the Fig Tree at that fateful time in the life of Adam and Eve with pure logic and evidential fact. Trust me you will be bound to think or rather question the age-old dogma of the apple being the fruit that sent the prophets to earth. If that was not the case then why did they cover themselves with the leaves of a fig tree? Why would they eat fruits from one tree and run to some other tree for cover if they were in such a hurry and so filled with embarrassment? Well, this book is filled with such mind-bending information. Do grab a copy today and thank me later.
When people have nothing better to do, they indulge in religious conflicts shrouded in the garb of comparative religion. Ever heard of a drug that cannot give you a trip or a good alcohol brand that lacks the potential of intoxicating you? Of course, the answer is NO. The way opium cannot make you feel sane, similarly, religious contemplation is devoid of generating peace.
The argument centering around the tree of knowledge is endless. The supporters of the apple are different from those who hold it was some other tree that cast Adam, Eve along with the serpent and the peacock out of the garden of Eden.
Why argue and fight over one particular tree when there are innumerable species from the flora family that need our care and support. To put it simply, we as humans must treat each and every plant, tree, fruit, and vegetable with total care and affection. Not just trees, birds, insects, animals, and rodents contribute to the ecosystem alike.
The book stretches over different timelines — the current world i.e. late 2010s, Cyprus before the civil war, the situation of the islanders during the civil war, and the condition of the island and the islander post-war.
The title The Island of Missing Trees symbolizes Cyprus and its peoples. The island stands for Cyprus and missing trees denotes the Cypriots gone missing during the civil war. These missing Cypriots do not belong to any particular region. This book gives a message that a Turk-Cypriot does not belong to North Cyprus and a Greek-Cypriot is not from the South. They are all Islanders. They have all suffered the same fate. Same Trauma. And their losses are the same — death and decay. So is the tragedy of all the trees and bombed buildings and lost ecosystem.
We are all wanderers, travelers, and nomads. None of us have any identity of our own. We can be a banker, a politician, a teacher, or a writer but that’s just our profession. Similarly, we can be a mother, sister, father, son, brother, or wife but that’s just our relationship to another individual, it doesn’t define us as a whole. All of us belong to something that defines our roots. It is good to stick to your roots. However, if you cling to your roots, past, tragedies, and painful memories then it will stifle you from within.
When the roots of a tree begin to encircle the base of its trunk, no matter how healthy it looks from the outside, the tree is actually dying from within. This is what happens to us when we cling to our roots, our past unnecessarily. No matter how healthy our body appears to be, our mind becomes prey to depression. And it goes without saying how fatal depression is to one’s self.
Daphne and Kostas will restore your faith in true love. Love has no religion and it surely doesn’t care about The Green Line that is supposed to separate.
This is a book of love, loss, hope, and happiness. Learn the lessons of life and precious anecdotes about Cyprus History, botany, Turkish Greek relationships before and after the civil war, curious superstitions, and Aesop-type Turkish proverbs.
I will sign off today with a quick question this book made me ask my self — we all tend to the trees like pets. Talk to them, nurture them and look after them with total love and care. What we feel towards them is a human-plant affection. Is it possible for a tree to feel plant-plant affection towards us? I mean can a tree fall in love with a human with every ounce of his or her photosynthesis?
