Colors for the Eyes & Music for the Heart

Pairs of Leafy hands walk into Hariri hospital, into the onco-pediatric unit on Adha’s eve. Two of them respectively carry a guitar, another carries a basket full of muffins carefully baked and wrapped. The other hands carry crafts and colors.

I Leaf Art team walks between colorful walls they had painted previously. 

Once the instruments are tuned and the smiles are on, strings are strummed and music takes over a place where silence reigns.

Hatem is four. He greets us with a shy smile on a pale face. 

Notes start flowing as his smile widens. He chooses to color a butterfly and names her Amar. His happiness reaches its peak when the clown enters. The boy asks for faster music and dances as much as he can with a tube connected to his arm, but his feet can only hold him for a bit so we leave him to rest.

Houssein is five. He enjoys slower music and fewer people. 

He chooses to color a horse and divides this task between all his leafy friends. He insists on the fact that the horse is a female and gives her the name of Amira. 
There’s a smart look in his tired eyes and the way he talks, but soon his focus weakens and Leafers had to leave him with enough colors to draw more rainbows in his dreams.

On the way out, I Leaf Art team passes by the nursery department and spreads music for the heart and colors for the eyes not only to entertain, but to rebuild the fragile hope of beaten parents.

Written by Sama Beydoun

Leafer since Summer 2014