De boom van hoop

·36 min·3 clips

A temple tree from China, one of the world's oldest living species, now grows in the Netherlands with a mysterious story.

The episode opens with a description of a Ginkgo tree in the Netherlands, noting its ancient origins as a temple tree in China. Botanist Rini Kooij is introduced as a curator who studies and draws detailed illustrations of Ginkgo leaves and fruits. She reveals that a young Hiroshima survivor tree in the Netherlands was revived using soil from a 1785 Ginkgo in the Hortus Botanicus in Leiden. Rini also connects with people like Roel Witte, a psychiatrist in Zeist who planted a peace tree descendant from Hiroshima. Roel discusses his family's war trauma, including his mother's experiences as a nurse during WWII and his father's service in Indonesia. The narrative shifts to Japan, where co-founder Nasrin Azimi of Green Legacy Hiroshima explains the project's mission to spread seeds from survivor trees as symbols against nuclear weapons and for environmental resilience. She describes how 170 trees survived within two kilometers of the hypocenter, with citizens early on documenting their locations. The episode visits the Peace Park in Hiroshima and a 300-year-old mother Ginkgo in Sukien Garden that was bent by the blast but continues to produce seeds. Nasrin details the annual seed collection involving volunteers, led by master gardener Mr. Horiguchi. The episode concludes with reflections on the trees' role in educating about peace and their potential to outlive human survivors, amid contemporary nuclear threats.

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from DOCS