I don't know what the secret of my long life is, it will be the vegetarian diet, or that I always worked with enthusiasm in direct contact with my beloved plants.
…
Or it will be that I am easy to smile. When you practice good, you generate love and a feeling of happiness enters you. Loving, giving thanks, not having pride or falling into envy and vanity generates inner peace. I forget toxic people.
What mark did the war leave on you?
The disasters that I saw on the part of some and others were terrible, revenge after revenge, killing innocent beings.
Did you learn something?
The war taught me to be a pacifist. The French and their revolution gave us three magic words: freedom, equality and fraternity, three feet that support the world, which now lacks one leg: fraternity, and for this reason it cannot be sustained.
You kiss the earth.
Yes, I take a handful, break it into thousands of particles and give it thousands of kisses. The earth gives us everything, even being, that's where we come from.
True, we are a product of the earth.
Vegetables are our older brothers: they feed us, guide us and give us a good example, it seems to me that they speak to me. I don't talk to them, I just love them, and they understand that.
At what point did you realize you loved the land?
The day Juneda was bombed we were spread out across the countryside like scared rabbits. That morning, very early, I saw the pear trees and apple trees in bloom, that promise... And the planes came and destroyed them, so I yelled: "We are in paradise and man is destroying it!"
You must have been a child.
Was 10. Right there I promised to do as much good as possible to humanity, and I have been faithful. At first the work was mine to live and my children did not starve. My wife worked two days, she worked at the grocery store and at home. Moms are the best.
And you?
I divided the day into three eights, eight hours for me, to sleep, clean up; eight hours dedicated to my work, and the other eight hours to dedicate to others, sometimes just reading so that one's opinion is as accurate as possible. But I am very intuitive.
Give me an example.
As a child I was contemplating the men of my town who at 50 already looked like grandparents, and he told me: “Poor old men, they can't play, dance or have a girlfriend, always working. What can they do?...". And then he came to me: they can be generators of love.
You are wise.
Because I love, I love the universe, creation, plants, people. Time is the fabric of life, don't waste a minute, that's what I've always tried to do, maybe that's why I have the feeling of having lived 200 years, because of the intensity with which I've done it.
Bravo.
When one opens his heart, the other's arms open; and the embrace is fruitful and sweet.
When did you arrive in Barcelona?
In 1953, I managed to make my way distributing oils and soaps from my town with my metallic girlfriend: the bicycle, I was very happy with it, it took me everywhere for 30 years, it doesn't cost anything and it's a portable gym.
When did you start cultivating your urban garden?
Upon arrival, in a sad house that had a patio of 50 square meters. I progressed and opened a grocery store and bought land to build on, but the City Council only objected to me because I built very slowly. They were hateful, but it's not good for cells to hate.
How do I solve it?
They did not let me raise the planned and approved floors. It doesn't matter, I organized my green world on the roof to teach school children to love plants.
What else has a century of life taught you?
Life is an open book, if you contemplate it with love and humility you will not stop learning. The farmer's most important harvest is that invisible exchange of vibration with the plants. They are so noble that they only give us positive energy and eliminate our poisons.
Can you be happy in misery?
I have known her well and sometimes one is happier than those who have abundance. She adapted me to the situation, very harsh, but when I arrived at the field very early, when the sun began to rise, I saw each wheat leaf glisten with dew. “How rich I am, how many diamonds do I have!” she thought.
Did you feed him?
No, we only had one hectare, and Ramoneta and I ended up in Barcelona, in a tiny room. My parents sent us vegetables from the garden and we ate that. Distributed poverty sometimes saves your life.
