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The Odd One Out. The Jogger who Stops to Eat Leaves.
The beauty of humanity is there is always one who is a little different from the rest of us. The park across from my home in Colombia, is popular with the early morning dog walkers, people counting down their 7,000 steps, guys doing lifts on the high bar, women twisting left and right on the turning platform, and of course the joggers.
Our man has no set routine and is certainly not one dimensional. He uses all the apparatuses. Five minutes on one, a few minutes on another, does some dance steps, then walks or jogs for 30 or 40 meters, no counting steps, or heart rate watch, he just does what he feels he needs to do.
He is not what the girls would call a “hunk,” and he certainly doesn’t fit the image of a gym junkie who would frequent “Smart Fit” or some other workout center.
Occasionally he will stop at a tree, pick a few leaves and squashes them, checking the aroma on his hand's. But, on one particular tree he picks two or three leaves from the bottom branches and eats them.
Today, curiosity got the better of me. Sitting outside sipping a coffee, I asked what they were. He came over with three small leaves.
“These,” he said, “Are the leaves of the miracle tree, rich in vitamins C, A, and B6. It is rich in Iron and Magnesium and is a great…