“We have to paint it yellow,” says a wealthy fellow from the town and gains many followers. “Because blah blah blah.”
“No, no, no, yellow is wrong, because blah, blah, blah, we should better paint it green,” says another, also gaining followers.
It was the theme of the town in the following months, yellow or green? It occurs to someone to ask an old man who remained silent:
“And you, old man, what do you think? What color should we paint it?”
“It doesn't matter,” answers the old man, “the foundations of the tower are bad, it's going to collapse at any moment.”
They treat him as a fool, crazy, pessimistic, defeatist, some even insult him. They put it to a vote and the tower ends up painted yellow. A year later the tower collapses, nobody remembers the old man's words, they blame the guy who proposed to paint it yellow “Liar, corrupt, son of a bitch!” they yell at him at the door of his house. The tower is rebuilt, again with defective foundations and this time it is painted green. Always someone, just to be annoying, asks the old man for his opinion, the old man says the same thing again and ends up being insulted again. A year later the tower falls down again, this time the green party is blamed and since everyone has already forgotten what happened past year, it is rebuilt again, again with poorly laid foundations and it is repainted yellow with the hope that this time… Eventually, the old man decided to go to live alone in the mountain, to at least avoid useless discussions with the townspeople; from the height he sees the tower collapsing every year and how, little by little, the town is covered with green and yellow rubble scattered everywhere.
©2022 - Walter Alejandro Iglesias