The Legend of Sumuma

play by Ruth Salles

Playful with some movement

CHARACTERS:
1st Kapok / 2nd Kapok / Bromeliads / Orchids / Parasites / Vines.

CHORUS (bromeliads, orchids, parasites, vines):
– Just for you, Sumumas,
the Amazon is a party.
Your bushy cups
are worth a forest.
We are plants that settle
on their trunks and climb them,
winding itself in its knots.
We are bromeliads, orchids,
parasites and vines.

ORCHIDS (in chorus):
— But, on account of one matter,
I, the Orchid, ask you:
Why is it across the woods
are you so different?
For, at the time of flowering,
completely defoliate.

BROMELLIAS (in chorus):
– Before, the flowers sprouted,
your shadow was so beautiful...
A thousand little animals sheltered
and refreshed themselves in it.
And, as I am Bromeliad,
with the water I kept
your thirst I quenched.

1st SUMMARY:
– O plants that I shelter! I, kapok,
I almost had my existence ended,
for my berries, one by one,
were eaten by the bugs
well before they drop the seeds
that would give me life again.
Distressed, I looked for Mother Nature,
that gives us your help, for sure.
And she said whenever I bloom,
I must drop the leaves. I obey.

2nd SUMMARY:
– For without the shelter of this green cloak,
the wild animals don't come so often.
And the seeds, which are little lumps
wrapped in little capuchins
of very light paina, they go flying,
go in the wind that comes here passing by.
And as he passed among the bare branches,
the wind makes the journey faster,
and the kapok trees sprout again,
because they can save their seeds.

CHORUS (bromeliads, orchids, parasites, vines):
– O Kapok, wealth
that the forest has recovered,
the wise Mother Nature
in you sheltered us.
Receive our love,
O dear kapokers!
Losing the leaves with the flower,
your life gives us life!

(Note: the indigenous word “kapok” means “tree with ropes”, perhaps because it is so gnarled, so full of knots for the others to climb.)

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