“I've lived here [Penha district of São Paulo] for 58 years, which is why I think that this place needs me as much as I need it. This [Tiquatira Park] was a poor and rundown neighborhood with a lot of trash frequented by drug users and used as an open air motel. I would walk around and see how things were always getting worse. One day I thought, “I'm going to change all this,” but I didn't know how.

I started to research and discovered that in the past there were trees, because the region was an extension of the Atlantic Forest. So I thought that if I planted species native to the Atlantic Forest, the soil would recognize them and vice-versa, like something deep in our memory. It’s like seeing a relative you haven't seen for a long time, but you remember traits and similarities. I decided to start planting trees. I visited the large sapling nurseries in Limeira, in the interior of São Paulo state.

Hélio da Silva. Photo: Tiago Queiroz. Reproduction/Estadão

I bought 200 trees at the time, 17 years ago [on November 23, 2003], and paid R$ 800. Trees are like children, they need vaccines, haircuts at the right time, help with healing and good sleep. They’re like your child, you have to give them the right care. I arranged the rows of saplings, planted grass alongside to protect them from the sun and watered the little ones.

That is the story of Hélio da Silva in an article on UOL. Hélio is a retail manager in the Penha district of São Paulo who is responsible for building (and planting) with his own hands Tiquatira Linear Park Engenheiro Werner Eugênio Zulauf, the first linear park in São Paulo. The park extends for 3.5 kilometers and has 30,000 trees of 160 different native species.

Discover Tiquatira Park and Hélio