Nanjhou Elementary

At the gate of Nanjhou Elementary stand the roots of Kuanrong (寬榕) — a banyan tree planted in the Japanese era, the oldest of three centennial banyans that once formed a canopy our students used to call "the green dome." Kuanrong's name means "to be wide, to hold gently" — a quiet hope that two nations, two eras, two languages could grow into the same root system. 校門口守著一棵叫「寬榕」的百年老榕——日治時期種下的，是三棵百年榕樹中最年長的一棵。三棵樹原本撐起一片橫幅 50+ 公尺的「綠色巨蛋」，孩子們在樹下上體育課，「不怕炙熱的驕陽」。「寬」字取「兩國寬容、和諧」之意，期盼日台兩個國家、兩個時代、兩種語言，能扎在同一條根脈上。

Of the three trees, two are gone. Tangrong (糖榕), named for the sugar-factory era, was torn out by Typhoon Megi in September 2016 — 70 years old, ten metres tall. In December, our partners from Mingdao University's Department of Japanese helped the children make 80 teru teru bōzu (晴天娃娃) and hang them around the transplanted trunk. Students sang the Japanese folk song "Itomakimaki" (捲線歌) under the canopy. The then-principal called it "the best life-education class we ever taught." 三棵樹中，已經有兩棵不在了。糖榕——以台糖時代命名——在 2016 年 9 月的梅姬颱風中連根拔起，70 歲、十公尺高。同年 12 月，明道大學日文系師生帶著孩子做了 80 隻晴天娃娃，繫在移植後的樹幹周圍；學生們在樹下唱日文童謠《捲線歌》。當時的校長形容那是「生命教育最好的一堂課」。

Tangrong and her sister Nanrong (南榕) eventually succumbed to brown-root disease. Only Kuanrong remains — older than her two sisters, and now alone. We teach our children to walk past her gently, to know what she has lived through, and to remember the other two. 糖榕與她的姊妹樹南榕後來都因為褐根病相繼凋零。今天只剩寬榕一棵獨自守著校門——她比兩位姊妹都年長，現在也最孤單。我們教孩子們走過她身邊時放輕腳步，記得她經歷過的時代，也記得另外兩棵樹。