They have three days to live and then it’s done. Three of the four huge and iconic old chestnuts on the Baronielaan in Breda. The trees are so sick that they will be cut down on Tuesday. To the chagrin of many local residents. “It will never be the same in this place,” says Lisette de Jongh-De Leeuw. The Bredase said a ritual goodbye to the trees that were planted there 123 years ago on Saturday.
Anyone who drives up the Baronielaan from the Zuidelijke Rondweg in Breda cannot miss them: four large, old chestnuts on the round Engelbert van Nassau park. They have been there since 1900. Just a minute. The chestnut bleeding disease and all kinds of fungi are now finally killing them.
“I feel the support and strength of Mother Earth with these trees.”
For twenty years Lisette has regularly been found among the wooden giants. To meditate, to feel the energy of the old trees. She saw the chestnuts decay and the fungi appear. But the news about the hood still hit hard. “I feel the support and strength of Mother Earth with these trees. They give peace, confidence and protection to this neighborhood.”
In the rain, Lisette and a few other local residents held a farewell ritual on Saturday afternoon. A mandala was placed between the four trees: a kind of wreath of twigs and flowers. “I hope that with this we can lovingly give them energy that they can go to the other side. Back to the source.”
They circled around the mandala. “The center of the mandala is very special. You could say that it is the center of the cosmos. In it you can release and receive everything. Through the heart. And trees communicate through the heart. And so we ask the trees if they want to tell us something else and can we tell them something else.”
“This will no longer be the case, so it will take some getting used to.”
With drum and flute, the participants walked around the chestnuts afterwards for a last thought or greeting. Among them Jack, Lisette’s husband: “There will be an emptiness here on the Baronielaan. A recognizable space will disappear, for example when you come home from vacation. This will no longer be the case, so that will take some getting used to.”
