The corner...

As usual, I was wandering in my kitchen garden, and I stopped in my tracks to see the empty space in the corner of my garden, where once stood a huge mango tree.
The dullness and the vacant look of the corner triggered my longing for that tree even more. It has now been almost a couple of years since the tree has been cut; but the corner still fills the gloom and vacuum and no other tree has taken its place, or never will.
I recall myself playing about the tree, trying to climb and occasionally falling down with bruised limbs but with full heart. I would climb up to my favorite branch-which was the lowermost and definitely the most easy one to climb- and try plucking raw mangoes before anyone does. I was often bit by the ants trekking with me to the tree and later I developed a weird kind of sport of catching the ants and putting them in my pockets...  hehe!
I also tried unfruitful attempts to pluck all raw mangoes and then putting them in straw for ripening. The epitome of my innocence I feel was when I would water the tree daily with a small pail of water... not at the roots, but on the branches! :D Because I felt that part of the tree grows and I must water the growing part to make it into a huge tree very soon.
We friends had our weekend parties and meals under the cool shade of the tree. And the tree would also play pranks on us- by dropping the raw mangoes right into our small heads! 
It was a home to a variety of birds. The mayinah, the sun-birds, the sparrows, the squirrels too often joined the colony... I was astonished to see a kite making its nest on the topmost branches of the tree... Undoubtedly it was the best place as the tree was out of reach at those points being a whooping 25-30 feet tall.
The delicacy it offered us each year was beyond words. The Alphanso mangoes with golden perfection and ripe to the right sweetness was what which made me so fond of the tree (I was  a bit materialistic and selfish...uh?). 
Summers exclusively meant a world woven around the tree.
Those woven summer mysteries and the days of fun and frolic lost as we  outgrew our childhood clothes and the tree-climbing ceased to appease us...
And the tree to was eliminated forever soon.


But the corner still reminds me of the days of hanging on the strong branches and throwing raw mangoes on the passersby...
The corner still lies there, waiting for another mango tree to fill its world and ours too, once again.
But no vegetation ever grows in there and has pushed the corner in permanent mourning. I wait for the day when a small sapling will put its head out of the earth and welcome the sun in the corner of my garden...