Feng shui believers and practitioners say it is lucky if your house or building stands on a lot with a dragon underneath. But it is unlucky if the house or the building is right above the head of the dragon. Or something like that. But what if the dragon on your property is suspended in air and right beside your house? Last Sunday, Speedy had the mango tree in the garden pruned. It was long overdue as some of the branches were already intertwined with electric and phone cables. And because the mango tree has grown way above the roof of out house, dead leaves have been accumulating in the gutter. So, Speedy hired three men to do the job. The started in the morning and, by two o’clock in the afternoon, I had gotten bored of watching them through the sliding door of our bedroom. Out of boredom, I had an idea. I told Speedy to ask the workers if they could shape the branches and leaves of the mango tree into a dragon. If shrubs can be shaped into animals and all sorts of fanciful creatures, why not a mango tree? I heard him ask them, they laughed good-naturedly and I just knew it wasn’t going to happen. I was resigned to my fate, no dragon in the garden, until Monday morning when we were inspecting how the tree looked after pruning.

That was when I saw the dragon. You can see it, can’t you? Okay, let’s try the zoomed in version.

You can see the mouth right there. And zoom in a little closer…

… and the eye socket is visible. I’m pulling your leg? Well, doesn’t it look like a dragon? Of course, this was something unintentional. The men who pruned the tree didn’t cut the branches to form a dragon shape. The “dragon” is shaped by several layers of tree branches and if you look at it from the sides, the optical illusion will be gone. No photoshopping here. None. ZERO. But it’s uncanny, isn’t it? I wanted a dragon in the mango tree and I actually found one.

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