One of my favorite people in Motovun is Jozo Brandić, a furešt or foreigner just like me. Whenever we meet, we talk about all sorts of marvelous things. But today I learned something quite special from him. He is from northern Bosnia to the south of the Sava River that flows into the Danube. When people in his region would build a well, they would use willow trunks for the well’s foundations. Not oak trunks, which are within an easy reach, as well. Willow is the choice when wells are built. Realizing that this sort of knowledge is disappearing at a clip, I found myself holding onto it as if for dear life. Who knows how many years it will take the people along the Sava to learn this simple thing once again. Willow! And I already know it so many years, decades, or perhaps even centuries in advance.