TUESDAY, MAY 14, 2024
ANISHA FRANCIS
ASSAGAO: Often called Goa’s Bonsai-whisperer, Daniel D’Souza has managed to turn a childhood fascination into a flourishing career in landscaping and floral arrangements. Daniel was born and raised in Miramar, and his affinity for plants blossomed at the young age of 4. He would spend hours pottering about in the garden, ‘playing’ with plants like they were pets. “I was quite uncontrollable– I would take plants out of their pots and show their roots to the sun every day; I watered a cactus several times a day, and even gave my Christmas tree a bath with soap and water – which ended up killing those poor plants. Since I did not heed my parents’ instructions, they left me to my own devices so I could learn everything on my own,” he reminisces with a chuckle.
Despite his early fascination with plants, Daniel’s parents envisioned different career paths for him – his mother wished for him to become a dentist, while his father hoped for an engineering career. However, Daniel’s heart belonged to the greenery, and he often found himself skipping engineering classes to explore and discover new plant species. He went on to do his Masters in Botany, Horticulture and Landscaping from Bombay University and returned to Goa to become a full-time landscape artist. While he is constantly busy, landscaping public and private gardens and resorts, and creating stunning floral decor for hotels and celebrations, Daniel does not take up any work post lunchtime. “I rise with the birds and the bees at 4 am, and begin work by 7 am. Post 1 pm, I stop working and spend time with my family, go out to the beach or on a hike, or just watch cows grazing to rest and recharge for the next day. I’m in bed by 8 pm,” he says.
“Sometimes, I’m convinced I have chlorophyll running through my veins, and that my body is capable of photosynthesis,” jokes Daniel, who claims he does not feel hungry or thirsty when he’s out in the sun with his plants in his “garden”, a veritable mini-rain forest he’s created in Assagao, where he lives now. Towering tropical trees enveloped in climbers like pepper and monstera, orchids and rare ferns, gigantic colocasia and other exotic flowering plants that look like they’re from the Jurassic era, a pond with fish, swathes of colourful crotons – Daniel’s sustainable garden, carefully developed over the past three decades or so, is a delight to the senses. His collection of bonsai trees is even more impressive – Daniel has even managed to grow several types of fruit-bearing trees in containers. “The ancient practice of bonsai is the world’s only living art form. Every other kind of art piece is displayed or locked away, but with a bonsai, you are constantly tending to it and working on it,” says Daniel, who began growing his first bonsai at age 11. His oldest bonsai is around 35 years old today. “It is tedious, but it teaches you patience,” says Daniel, who also conducts bonsai workshops. “I’ve had students as young as 10 and as old as 72 and had decided long ago that I will teach anyone who is passionate about bonsai, even if they cannot afford the workshop fee,” he says earnestly.
Daniel’s kinship with plants may border on eccentricity, as he admits he talks and sings to his green friends, and for trees like the 200-year-old banyan recently transplanted from St Inez to Campal that need all the help they can get to revive, he even sneaks in some hugs and kisses. “When you do something you are passionate about, it does not even feel like work,” says Daniel, who is also President of the Botanical Society of Goa. He urges young people not to run after ‘quick money’, and to take the time to figure out what they are passionate about. “And I request everyone to do all they can to preserve mother nature for the generations to come,” he adds.
Daniel is a cancer-survivor and hopes to inspire people to fight the disease. He was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2020, during the Covid-19 lockdown. “Doctors in Goa had given up on me, so I travelled to Mumbai for treatment,” says the 52-year-old, who underwent 35 sessions of radiation and six rounds of chemo, and even got Covid twice. “One must not get scared of a cancer diagnosis, or daunted by the punishing treatment options. You must be determined to kick it, and never give up,” he says, adding that he believes it was the positive energy exuded by all the trees that he’s saved, and the creatures that dwell in them, that helped him go into remission.
