Chameleon Magazine

In a war-torn city, rubble choked the streets and smoke stained the sky. No one believed green things could return.

Then an old woman, bent and near blind, found a pouch of seeds buried in the ruins of a marketplace. She carried them to the central square where walls had collapsed, scratched a hole in the dirt with her hands, and pressed them down.

At first, the people mocked her—what good are seeds in a graveyard? But weeks later, tender shoots pushed through the ash. Grass spread across broken bricks, herbs scented the air, and a single tree stretched upward, bearing fruit.

Children who had never seen colour beyond grey tasted sweetness for the first time. The city did not yet heal, but it began to hope.

“Even in ruins, the earth remembers how to feed us.”