I have always been puzzled why they gave Greenland that name. I mean a place that is almost completely covered by ice and snow year around would have been more appropriately named “Whiteland,” don’t you think? I was driving around the Valle de Orosi this weekend and I tell you the true “greenland” is right here in Costa Rica. If I had to choose a favorite color, I guess it would be green. Why? To me it is a very down to earth color and I guess I am sort of a “down to earth” kind of guy. It provokes a certain tranquility and peace to look out at a vista of verdant green mountains, such as you find almost anywhere you go in Costa Rica. I live in the “suburbs” of San Jose in a place called Santo Domingo de Heredia. While we are surrounded here by beautiful green mountains, sometimes looking at them from afar just doesn’t cut it. That’s when I have to fire up La Poderosa (my car) and drive deep into the heart of all that green stuff. It really clears the head, heightens the senses and provides a peace of the mind. These days the word “green” has become another political and rhetorical “hot potato.” Everyone is batting it around to push an agenda of some sort. We even up until recently had a “green jobs czar” in the White House. Since I am so fond of this color it really doesn’t bother me to see the world get a little greener. I guess I am spoiled living in the greenest country on earth, but I don’t think I could ever take the beauty that I get to experience here in Costa Rica on a daily basis for granted. A poet once wrote “I think that I shall never see, a poem lovely as a tree.” There is a certain poetry about the majestic green mountains of Costa Rica, so full of almost every variety of God’s creative work. Unlike the snow capped Rockies, which while beautiful are also harsh and barren, the mountains of Costa Rica are teaming with a seemingly endless display of flora and fauna. I hope that our mountains will stay green forever. It confuses me that some people just don’t see the value in nature’s green, but only in another kind of green…..those little pieces of paper with pictures of dead notables that roll off the presses in Washington D.C. Many allow themselves to be deluded to think that this variety of green is really all that matters. That peace is found in an ever increasing accumulation of it. The problem with that “green” is that it is “spent” so easily. Then it is replaced with things of various colors that all too quickly lose their luster. But the green of these beautiful mountains never loses its appeal, at least as long as man, in pursuit of the other “green,” doesn’t ruin it.

I think that I shall never see,
A poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest,
Against the sweet earth’s flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in summer wear,
A nest of robbins in her hair;

Upon whose blossom snow has lain,
Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.

Trees by Joyce Kilmer

Free 100 Cool Things eBook

100 Cool Things to Do in Costa Rica

10 Crazy Cool Things to do in 10 Super Cool Places - entertaining, informative and the perfect tool to help make your Costa Rica vacation as cool as it should be...