About us.
Hello
My name is Carlos Melillo, and I am the author of this blog.
I was born back in the 1970s, on a small property located a few kilometers from Remedios, one of the oldest cities in Cuba. Since I was a child, I was surrounded by the lush nature that characterizes the Caribbean islands.
My family on my mother’s side owned farms where they raised cattle and planted coffee and different fruit trees. When my grandmother got married, she received a portion of the property. My grandfather, a carpenter and artist by trade, was an extremely intelligent man who, during his work travels across Cuba, developed an interesting collection of different types of fruit trees on the property. In every place he visited, he would inquire about types of fruits that were not known elsewhere. Thus, over the years, the quantity and diversity of fruit trees grew on the small farm.
All of this happened roughly from 1930 to 1960. By the year I was born, around the 1970s, my house was like a small botanical garden with gigantic trees.
From my grandfather, I inherited the love and knowledge of plants, as well as the passion for painting and photography. In 1999, I graduated as an art teacher, and thanks to my salary as a teacher, the landscape paintings I sold, and a small nursery of fruit trees, we were able to survive the difficult economic situation that was hitting our country.
In 2007, I emigrated to the United States, and in 2014, my wife and I bought a property of nearly 3 acres in South Florida. Just like my grandfather started almost 100 years ago, we are filling all the space surrounding our house with fruit trees from different tropical regions of the world, while simultaneously developing our family business: a nursery of exotic fruit trees.
Well, you may have already realized: this blog isn’t about an idea that came to me yesterday or two days ago; it’s more of a project that has been swirling around in my head for many, many years. Here, you’ll find three of my greatest passions united: fruit trees, photography, and painting. Many of the articles you’ll read and a big part of the photos and illustrations that accompany them were created by me.
Thank you very much for your interest, and I hope you enjoy reading my work as much as I enjoyed creating it.