The Emerald City

this is a true story. It represents an entangled love story of smeraldo which is estimated to have taken pace aroung the 15th-16th centuries in the city of "La cittá di smeraldo".

According to various sources, the story supposedly has a tragic ending filled with yearning, sadness and sincerity that could not be delivered.

According to the story, there once lived a man. He lived in a secluded castle in La cittá di smeraldo.

There is not much information about the man except he was the 'loved child' of the duke of Florence who fell in love with a poor gardener's daughter. She passed away at child birth due to excessive bleeding leaving the man alone in the world.

Being a child born out of wed-lock, he was the source of misery to the wife and children of the duke, who tried to kill the poor boy. As a result, the duke sent him to a place further away.

There were many rumours, but none was revealed.

It is said the man alone hid himself at solitude at the old castle and wore a mask because he was very 'ugly'. Probably because of all the hatred and jealousy he received as he lived, he didn't open his heart to anyone. When anyone tried to approach him, he would hid himself away in anger.

He shut himself from the world, Both his body and his heart.

His only joy is to grow flowers in his garden.

It made him happy and peaceful.

But things took a beautiful turn. A turn of which would be a moment of beauty. A turn which would leave a sorrowful scar his heart forever and bring in tears to his eyes.

Fate was playing on him.

One day, a girl appeared in front of him near the vicinity of his castle. She was in ragged clothes. As he watched, the girl picked up the heels of the garden fence, climed over it and stoke some flowers.

The man was mad as a hornet at first. He was mad at her for stealing his precious flowers. He spent his whole night guarding the flowers. But in his brief moment of sleep, the girl picked up some flowers and ran away. Several nights continued to pass like that, until the man pretended to fall asleep and watch the girl go. He was curious.

Who was she? Why does she steal my blooming pretty flowers every night?

Without realizing it, the man waited for the girl and followed her one night. He disguised himself. with a cloak and followed her.

After following her to a village, he realized why she stole flowers at his garden every night.

He found out the girl sells these flowers because she is very poor and has no other way to provide a living for herself.

He felt very bad for her. The man wanted to help the girl. He wanted to teach her every method of growing flowers. He wanted to teach her how to grow beautiful flowers.

He knew. He was slowly falling in love with her.

The man started growing many flowers for her and made sure they were of the best quality.

He wanted to show up infront of her. Tell her his feelings towards her, But. He knew he could not show up in front of her.

She would be scared of him.

He must hide, Because he was ugly. She would not love his ugly appearance.

So he never got the courage to confront her.

In the end, the only thing he could do was to grow and take care of the flowers so that she would keep coming to his garden.

With time, he decided for himself that he would grow the most expensive flower (the smeraldo) for her to sell. That was the only way he would unveil his sincerity to her.

He locked himself in the castle.

After many attempts, the make succeeded in making the flower. The flower was very beautiful. It was something that never existed in the world. Afterwards. He filled his garden with the flower and waited till nightfall for the girl to return.

He waited and waited for the girl to comeback to the garden to steal the flower. But the girl did not return. She was nowhere to be seen, no matter how much he waited, the girl wouldn't return to his garden.

It made him anxious. He later visited the village he followed her to.

Unfortunetly he found out that the girl has died.

He was afraid. Afraid that she will leave him in the end. So he decided to wear a mask and go to see her.

IF THE MAN HAD THE COURAGE, WOULD HE HAVE SHOWN HIS FACE AND EXPRESSED HIS SINCERITY? OF COURSE, THE WOMAN MIGHT HAVE BEEN SCARED AND RUN AWAY, EVEN GOTTEN MAD. BUT TO HAVE BRAVERY IS EASIER SAID THAN DONE.