When we were able to catch a trout and roast it on a fire; to hunt a bird and eat its plucked, tender and juicy flesh hot; or to collect fruits and vegetables to throw them on the fire not so much to satisfy our hunger as to enjoy pleasures moved by desire, our species jumped from raw to cooked. And this meant, as Lévi-Strauss suggested, transforming the natural state in which the ingredients around us were found into culture: going from the primitive to the symbolic.

Eating from trees, digging up roots and tubers or using rocks to break bones and pull out the marrow of certain dead animals to nourish our bodies, we would not have evolved the same way. As Faustino Cordón would say, cooking made us the men and women we are. Manipulating the fire allowed us to eat food that was easier to chew, digest and absorb, ensuring more energy and time available to undertake transcendental adventures for our species such as the progressive consolidation of a language to explain our surroundings, share stories and lucubrations. To explore what we do not know. To imagine what didn’t exist and go out and look for it.

As it happens with our Tree House, a utopia that we pursue for the pure pleasure that fantasies provoke. Here is a list of the objects, desires or concepts that our accomplices would climb to their own tree house:

A pirate treasure, a bottle of rum, candles, matches, “One Hundred Years of Solitude”, a pencil in the ear, love, an arepa, binoculars, experience, youth, restlessness, coffee, candles, time, music, water, piranha dust, ash, papyrus, a knife, a lighter, threads to weave, water, a fit of laughter, an opportunity, a flashlight, drawing paper, seeds, a radio, a glass of wine, friends, mate, a piano, a doubt, a ghost without a sheet, my mother’s hug, my children’s imagination, watercolors and brush, a yoga mat, my cat, megaphone, a pair of pants torn at the knee, a mom’s recipe, infinite dreams, vanishing points, a mill, a possum, a dictionary, a spoon, chess, a novel by Murakami, a treasure map, a lost poem, my pokemon, a record player, a book, a harmonica, my father’s photo, charcoal, a hammock, a philosopher, a poet, Mugaritz, a red rose, my grandfather’s memory, a frozen star, rampant horse, good times, a blank book, hungry souls, a Bob Dylan record, popcorn, a jar of multicolored glitter, a clock without hands, lost battles, bread and sausage, brewer’s yeast, hope, some pain, songs, a pebble, a string, a guitar, an old sheet, a pen, grandfather’s knife, a kite, rosemary alcohol, a wedding ring, an old newspaper, a hat, a pillow, goldfish, a ham sandwich, a wish to be fulfilled, a first-aid kit for the soul, a tupperware with healers and surgeons, complexity, simplicity, a blackboard, a paper plane, an oar, a comb, a telescope, a camera, a used heart, broken shoes, a tightrope, a cold beer, instinct, feelings, the girl of my dreams, a boat with the sound of the sea, a ladder to climb, a photo frame, childhood memories, a poem by Arthur Rimbaud, etc…