Elk in Eritrea

On the back of the five-nakfa note is a monochrome picture of an enormous tree. The trunk is relatively short and supports a huge, wide, deep canopy of leaves. In its gnarled body and full , rounded symmetry it resembles an oak, stretched laterally. It is unlike any of the usual trees in this country; the scraggly baobabs that look as if they are waving their roots in the air and the cactus-like candelabra trees predominate.

Just on the outskirts of Segeneiti is where the five-nakfa tree can be found. In fact, as well as the original on which the pictire is based, there are several others, placed evenly-apart in a field of grass. The last one before the town clasps onto the rocky slope at the side of the road, the wind and weather and sheer effort of clinging to its precarious position have carved a lifetime into the knots and whorls of the trunk, like the pinched pulled and beaten face of an old man.