The town Cisternino, in which Valle d’Itria Botanical Conservatory is located, is in the center of Puglia, and situated between two ports (Taranto and Brindisi). The conservatory is established by Mr. Paolo Belloni in 2004, which shows abundant examples of biodiversity. Therefore, pupils and students visit the conservatory for their research. 300 varieties of fig trees, biblically a symbol of peace, are planted and grown here.
Ms. Tiziana Volta, editor of an Italian magazine called “Gardenia,” has applied for the plantings at three locations; the conservatory, the National Gallery in Kabul, Afghanistan, and Parco San Giovanni, Trieste, Italy.
On the day of the planting ceremony, children came by a school bus that shuttled between the primary school in Cisternino and the conservatory many times.
They built a flower garden with a diameter of about 20 meters in the vast grounds, planted a lot of lavenders in the garden, and built paths like a maze.
Children’s brass band welcomed people by as they came toward in the field.
They gathered outside the red tape surrounding the garden, and heard a briefing on the Project and a message from Dr. Ebinuma. Then, three girls who stood in the middle of the flower garden read poems.
Afterward, children were led by adults and walked on the maze-like path through the garden toward the center where the tree was about to be planted. To welcome the tree and Dr. Ebinuma, children sang a Japanese children’s song “Yuyake Koyake” and an Italian song, and a woman did a prayer-like performance. Children put soil over the tree roots in pairs and released kaki colored balloons into the sky. A tree-shaped message board was put up outside the field, and children wrote messages on kaki fruit shaped paper and pasted them on the board.
