Palm tree destroyed by Storm Harry inspires tree-planting initiative

The destruction of Malta’s tallest palm tree by Storm Harry may have broken hearts but it has also sowed the seed for a tree-planting initiative by a moved and grateful restaurateur.

Fausto Soldini, who has set up successful Italian eateries in Malta over the last 13 years, wants to pay it forward.

Touched by the sadness of the owner of the record-breaking 21-metre palm tree in Birżebbuġa, Soldini began by offering a replacement, although he acknowledged it would not be as tall.

“When David Carabott sent me a message to say he was in mourning because the tree he held close to his heart had fallen in the gale force winds, he spoke like he was talking about a member of his family,” Soldini said.

The owner of the old Ix-Xerriek farmstead, known as Tal-Palma, in the limits of Birżebbuġa, had also told Times of Malta that “a piece of me is gone”.

Remains of the fallen tree after the storm. Photo: David Carabott

The “iconic” palm tree was like a “guiding star”, serving as a point of reference that led many to the surrounding fields in the island’s southeast, and as an orientation landmark even when viewed from aircraft.

When it was struck directly by the powerful south-easterly winds, its life – spanning generations, across hundreds of years – came to an abrupt and “sorrowful” end.

“I knew he cared about the tree because he had always spoken to me about it and has sent me hundreds of photos of it too,” Soldini continued.

Almost every single day, Carabott captured in sunset photos the tree he, his father and his grandfather grew up with, and that he got more attached to as time went by.

Soldini’s replacement and tree-planting initiative were born this way – “partly from joking and partly from sentimentality” – and he hoped it would take root.

“On the one hand, the story made me smile, but on the other, it gripped my heart, thinking how much a person could be so connected to a tree,” Soldini said.

“In our family, we are particularly sensitive to these matters, so it just came to me to tell him that even though it would not be the same thing, I wanted to gift him – and everyone who have this tree as a point of reference – a replacement.”

“I plan to buy him a palm tree – even though it would not be as large – and I am looking into where I can get one from here.”

Soldini’s idea continued to spread as he thought of all the uncultivated agricultural land surrounding the palm, suggesting the planting of other trees in the area.

Driven by his daughter’s ongoing tree-planting projects, he said this could be the “start of something beautiful for Malta – to give something back for all that it has given us in 13 years”.

At 21-metres, the palm tree in Birżebbuġa stood as Malta’s tallest. Photo: David Carabott

The restaurateur told Carabott to consult his family about the possibility of planting even just the first 100 square metres with some trees.

“Then, maybe, we will plant another 100 before they build there too. Let’s put some trees on this blessed island, please,” he implored.

Around 228 trees were casualties of last month’s fierce winds, and among these was also Żebbuġ’s oldest oak. It was broken down by Storm Harry after some 200 years of standing strong.

Żebbuġ’s Siġra tal-Ballut and other age-old trees were “part of the collective memory and urban landscape”, the town’s mayor Steve Zammit Lupi had acknowledged.

Soldini appealed to anyone with a piece of land: “If it is just thrown there, uncultivated, and nothing is being done with it, let’s plant a couple of trees.

“I will take care of the fundraising, and I will be the first to put up the money,” he said.

“It would be a marvellous thing that truly costs a little, when you think of it, but that would give so much in future.”

The storm killed the palm tree but not its memory, which is firmly rooted in many, Carabott had said on the day it died.

Now, he is consoled that it should give rise to many more of its kind and live on in them. He is also working on other ways of immortalising it, such as creating something special from its trunk.