Many similar questions immediately appear as suggestions, such as: ‘When will the trees have leaves?’, ‘Which trees never lose their leaves?’ and “Which month will it turn green?” Those suggestions only exist by the grace that other people are also asking these questions at this very moment. At least that’s what I tell myself.
I thought I could outsmart winter by spending January – the only month with 80 days – abroad. But maybe my expectations were a bit too high when I returned. I thought that February would be over in a flash, and that it would “go” again in March. This is the logic of someone who lives on solar energy. But we are talking the second week of March and snow is coming, the branches are bare and the heating still costs thirty euros a day.
My walks are therefore more melancholic than ever. More people seem to be sitting all alone on benches and the empty shops with the remaining signs of ‘total empty sale’ look sadder than usual.
I hear my long winter coat rustle, the attempts of someone next to me to light a cigarette, a car that accelerates again when I’m still walking on the zebra crossing.
And then suddenly I hear B. One of the friendliest street people you can meet in the North. He greets everyone, asks for a ‘small contribution’, and asks by default whether you have already eaten. Doesn’t matter if it’s eleven o’clock at night. ,,Or do you still have to eat?” He is always cheerful, even if you don’t give anything. Or if, like me, you haven’t given anything twenty times. I keep promising him that I will bring cash next time and the next month I have nothing with me again.
I almost want to turn around in shame when he sees me and says: ,,Good evening, do you perhaps have a small contribution?” But then I think of the miracle: ,,Finally I have something!”, I shout. He smiles when I put it in his hand, but just as friendly as when I don’t give anything. Just normal. Everyone is equal to him.
Suddenly something brightens up in me. Behind him the crocuses are in bloom.
But for those who also wanted to know, here is the answer that Google gave me: ‘Most trees slowly start the sap flow in January. The first green buds can be seen from mid-March, everything usually turns green in April.’