Page 89 - RIVISTA NOIQUI GIUGNO 2021

or less the same thing happened there too. He spent a lot of time being pleased with
what he had done, although he was feeling tired of wandering around without an actual
destination, when he happened to find himself near an enchanting garden. He finally
plucked up the courage and entered the garden. The young woman who lived in that
fairy-tale place was in possession of a magnificent beauty, the same as her good and
kind spirit. Sadly her eyes were glassy: she was blind! The tree found a suitable place
and sank his roots there. One of many mornings, while she was walking by the garden
as she loved to do, the maiden, whose name was Emmanuelle, sensed an unusual pre-
sence. With fear in her heart, she went where her other more developed senses guided
her, flailing her arms in the air, until she touched something that didn’t exist before. At
her touch, the tree felt an emotion so powerful it materialized tears that fell down the
trunk and eventually wetted the fingers of the unlucky girl. <Who are you? I’m sure
you are not a common tree. I wish you could talk and confide to me what is troubling
you.> In saying so, the maiden hugged the tree and rested her head on him, crying her
heart out. Her tears, escaping her cheeks, fell on the huge trunk. It was the first time a
human being, besides his loved ones, was suffering for him. In the blink of an eye the
spell was broken, and he regained his true form of a young man, tall and charming. <I
am Prince Leonardo - he said - your noble soul broke the curse that was binding me. I
wish I could help you, give light to your glassy eyes, but I do not know how I could do
that…> That precise moment, something sparkled on the grass and caught his atten-
tion: it was a tiny golden leaf, the last reminder of what had transpired. An idea came
to him in a flash: he took her delicate hands in his and encouraged her to stoop. <On
the ground there’s the last one of my leaves. It is a magic leaf; please, pick it up and
hold her tight in your hand as you make your dearest wish.> He suggested. The eyes
of the girl, glassy since the day she was born, sparkled with life, and they cuddled in the
tightest of all embraces, at the apex of their happiness, thanking the Creator who had
given them a chance to meet.

IRIS VIGNOLA

89

periodico mensile del gruppo NOIQUI