Family Tree

Brown is the color of family,

A branching, rooting, budding clan -

The color of love is brown, you see.

My mother held me on her knee

With gleaming cocoa-shaded hand -

Brown is the color of family.

She sang my grandmother’s songs to me

Of waves that seek a distant strand -

The color of love is brown, you see.

The place my forbears first were free

Its sun-warmed earth, its rain-soaked sand;

Brown is the color of family.

My labor and my jubilee

Bring forth life in a colder land -

The color of love is brown, you see.

Each new leaf welcome on the tree

Beloved, remembered, distance spanned;

Brown is the color of family,

The color of love is brown, you see.