The Kapok Tree

The giant kapok tree stands at the corner of Greene and William streets, its massive, buttressed roots sprawling across the sidewalk like hardened lava. Sailors once prized the tree for its buoyant, water-resistant fibers, which they used to stuff life jackets and mattresses. In the nineteen thirties, the painter Mario Sanchez often set up his easel beneath these heavy limbs. He captured the daily bustle of the neighborhood, turning the tree into a permanent fixture of his wood-carved street scenes.