The Chestnut Tree (For Anne Frank)

On a winter morning you climbed the ladder to the attic with Peter. He chopped wood for about a quarter of an hour and you watched him silently. Then you looked out from the open window and marvelled at the stunning views of the city, the roofs, the streets and the canals of Amsterdam. An azure sky curved down kissing a pale blue horizon and white seagulls with outstretched wings were gliding on the wind. Standing bare in the inner garden Shiny silver drops perched on the branches Of the lonely chestnut tree near the house at Keizersgracht 188. And you found comfort and solace in all this simple beauty of nature. As long as such beauty exists in the world, You said, and you may live to see it, ‘this sunshine, the cloudless sky, while this lasts’, you ‘cannot be unhappy’ you wrote in your Diary on February 23,1944. By now, for almost two years, you and your family lived in hiding at the house behind the Prinsengracht. I was still free in my native land then and attended the public school.