HEARTBREAK TANGO (MANUEL PUIG) AND PHOTOTROPISM

It happened on an autumn afternoon. The trees that grew along that street in Buenos Aires bowed low. Why? Tall apartment houses on either side of the street blocked off the sun's rays, and the brancKes spread obliquely, as if pleading, toward the middle of the road . . . seeking light. Mabel was on her way to a friend's house for tea, she raised her eyes to the aged treetops, she noticed that the strong trunks bowed, humbly.

Phototropism is the phenomenon that makes vegetables grow and face the Sun, seeking its light. It may seem strange, but all plants do it; the birth and development of any plant is always done looking for the light, usually upwards. When the Sun exposition is irregular, like the situation explained in the text (the tree ‘humiliation’) the deflections from vertical appear

­A remarkable case of phototropism is the sunflower heliotropism. Sometimes, a tree that has fallen down, has got to stand up later thanks to this phenomenon.

In the picture, you can see Manuel Puig with some flowers; we don´t know whether they are heliotropic.