IN MEMORY OF HIS LATE WIFE, FARMER SPENDS DECADES GROWING GUITAR SHAPED FOREST

As you soar over the verdant expanse of the Pampas in Argentina, you might be taken aback to see a massive green guitar carved out of the surrounding fields. This massive landscape feature is best viewed from above, much like the hill figures of antiquity or the Renaissance hedge mazes. A local farmer named Pedro Martin Ureta planted the guitar forest and garden several decades ago in remembrance of his cherished wife Graciela Yraizoz. It is a contemporary endeavour. This community-driven project is so well-known that NASA satellites have taken notice of it, adding to its happiness.

Graciela, a young wife and mother, took a plane ride over Argentina's fertile Pampas region in the 1970s. She saw that a farm below had formed the shape of a milk pail by accident. Later, in remembrance of her love for the guitar, she asked her rancher husband Ureta if they could mould their fields into the shape of a guitar. Condé Nast Traveller claims that Ureta said to her, "Later, we'll talk...about it later." Sadly, it would never happen. At the age of 25, Graciela unexpectedly passed away in 1977 following a brain aneurysm that occurred while she was heavily pregnant.

Heartbroken, Ureta started building the guitar-shaped garden and forest in 1979 with his four kids as a tribute to his late wife. Using his children as guides, he spread them out across the fields to draw the lines. The family planted more than 7,000 trees with the assistance of field workers. Cypress trees are used to make the instrument's outline and the star-shaped opening beneath the strings. The eucalyptus trees themselves "draw" the strings. The family nurtured the expanding forest over the years, even coming up with inventive ways to keep pests away by using scrap metal. The whole length of the guitar is two-thirds of a mile.