We wrote a story about the flowering of the Guayacanes in Mangahurco. The beginning of what we call The Golden Forest of Ecuador. We include real data, invented names and other elements to create this short story. ?? Activate for English subtitles.

Legend has it that in the young stage of the Earth, when everything was forming and the temperatures were above what we know today, there was a huge lake of melted gold, called Chrysanthius. This, over time and with the increase in heat, began to evaporate. The process lasted thousands of years and managed to convert liquid gold into golden clouds in the sky. On a long, stormy night of blue and silver lightning, the golden rain fell on an empty and open area, known in ancient times as Orecilia, nowadays it has a name in Quichua: Mangahurco, which means pot surrounded by hills.

It is said that the rain of this element, scarce and limited on the planet, fell in Orecilia in the form of seeds that would turn into Guayacanes, a gift from heaven. The first trees grew slowly, fighting against changes in the settlement of the Planet: they became strong, fighting against long dry seasons and against 2 forces and creators of worlds: Arianos and Flamentio, scarcity and heat. The fight lasted for centuries, the gold of its roots made the Guayacans a dangerous rival, in addition their numbers increased and new generations of trees grew to join the battle. It is said that their trunks and branches shone brightly and that they always flourished, their petals were their most effective weapons, their flowers became gold mines that were thrown into the duo during fight.

There came a time when the number of the Guayacanes was too much for Arianos and Flamentio, so they decided to retire. But first, they would cast a curse on the Guayacans: they will live forever completely golden, in view of the next inhabitants of the planet who will look at them with greed and exterminate them for their element.

For millions of years the Guayacanes of Mangahurco were calm, they survived the dinosaurs, which didn’t show much interest. It was different with the arrival and appearance of a being that they called Tioros, beings that they thought had been sent by Arianos and Flamentio. This new population, integrated by what we now know as humans, immediately saw the wealth in this forest and began to mine it. Melting everything to turn it into precious objects, and decorate buildings. With no means to defend themselves against the plague, the Guayacans saw their brothers and sisters fall one after another.

Humans, driven by greed, destroyed much of the territory inhabited by golden trees. Its giant flowers and mines were not enough to repel the attack, its extinction seemed inevitable. And in a moment of salvation where Aletheia appeared, the wisest among the forces and the creators, lifted the spell of Arianos and Flamentio and turned the Guayacanes into dry, leafless trees to deceive humans that the gold had disappeared. The golden forest looked like a cemetery of dry bodies, humans lost interest in a few months and left. But what Aletheia did was reduce the flowering time: its thousands of yellow flowers will appear for 7 days a year, a number that represents the fight of the 7 centuries against Arianos and Flamentio, the confrontation known as the War of the Golden Age

Now the Golden Forest of Ecuador, Mangahurco, survives. It still delights us with its yellow landscapes and it still fights against humans, not for its golden flowers, but for its wood. The Guayacanes remind us, for the rest of the year, that greed is dark and leaves permanent damage.

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