Trees

There's a tree that grows in Brooklyn. Some people call it the
Tree of Heaven. No matter where its seed falls, it makes a tree
which struggles to reach the sky. It grows in boarded up plots
and out of neglected rubbish heaps. It grows up out of cellar
gratings. It is the only tree that grows out of cement. It grows
lushly ... survives without sun, water and seemingly without
earth. It would be considered beautiful except
that there are too many of it
- Betty Smith, 1896-1972.