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The Spanish Tree

Last year My friends and I adopted a tree in Hyde Park. It was a very, very big tree. I don't know what kind. Seven of us used to sit around it using the gaps between the roots as chairs. My whole social life revolved around this tree. It's not that crazy.There is a logic behind what we did.

Most of us were Spanish speakers from the Spanish School in Portobello road. If you take the 52 to Victoria then Portobello leads to Notting Hill, then you go down one big road and you are in Kensington. There is a corner of Hyde Park in Kensington and our tree was on that corner next to the entrance.

We were at that tree the whole year round. It didn't matter if it was raining or snowing. We were there. The coldest day I have experienced in my life I was at that tree.

In fact, on that day, the park was closed. The police came and asked us what we were doing there? Everyone else was warm at home or in a shopping centre but we couldn't leave the tree.

We would stay by the tree chatting anything and everything when one of us would say. I'm hungry. I am going to get a burger. Does anyone want something? Then everyone would make their order as if he or she was a waiter and half an hour later he would stagger back with our order.

There is always someone who throws their rubbish and leaves it in the park so I would gather it all up and then find a bin and get rid of it.

There was one time when we came to our tree and found a man bare chested, lashing himself with a branch shouting This is better than sex. Next to the tree there was a pond with a bandstand and there is never anything on there. But one day we heard strange music and walked to the bandstand and saw a thousand dancing Scottish people playing bagpipes and dancing in kilts.

On another occasion our group decided we would give free hugs to everybody. I even hugged a dog and a baby. We held out little placards and anyone who passed who wanted a hug, got one. The Chinese were more reserved and ignored us. In the end we shifted to High Street Kensington and after three or four hours we must have hugged hundreds of people.

ON another day, my friend Carmen and I decided to hunt ducks. We went to the pond and saw that the lifesaver had been taken off its stand. We just took the lifesaver with its cord and tried to hunt ducks with it. The ducks just paddled away and ignored us.

Near the tree Hyde Park is usually green. When you are in England the green seems wet and fresh, but in Zaragoza where I come from they have to water the plants constantly. In Zaragoza it doesn't rain often. I don't particularly like the rain but I like the feeling of lush green and you see a big difference when you fly over Spain and England. In Spain you see brown and mountains. But there don't seem to be any mountains in England.

I decided to do an artwork based on a picture Fer. took of Paula and I. Our heads are together, my hair is orange and we are looking to camera. Around us is the lush green of Hyde Park. I used this picture because it reminds me of last year and our tree and everything that happened around the tree. 

By Nuria Prat

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