This goes into the category of things you don’t miss if you didn’t ever know it was there.

For some time during my early visits to Parque Lezama I never noticed this wood sculpture near the park’s entrance. Then one day I did and took this photo in 2005. Wrapping around the base are carved the words Madre Tierra followed by the name of the artist. Unfortunately, my photo from then doesn’t show the full name of the sculptor.

Three years later, I was on one of my usual peregrinations around Parque Lezama and sensed something was missing. I walked around and found a stump in the ground. The wood sculpture had been cut down.

You can see the stump there in the foreground. Perhaps there was a reason for it. The top of the sculpture was cracked and maybe it was removed to be repaired. I certainly hope that it was not an accidental cutting, the grounds crew getting too carried away as they trimmed the plantings behind the sculpture and just went about whacking away.