An Argentine man had a touching and creative idea to honor the memory of his wife who passed away decades ago. The grieving widower planted and cultivated a beautiful, multi-colored forest in the shape of a massive guitar, a tribute to the memory of a love lost too soon.

The backstory: Pedro Ureta started the massive and ambitious landscaping project a few years after his wife Graciela tragically passed away in 1977 at the age of 25 from a brain aneurysm, reports Ecorazzi. Pedro said that the young couple had talked about crafting a massive “sky image” on the fields that they owned, but kept putting it off at Pedro’s behest “until they had more time.”

“Working tirelessly to plant and cultivate the trees, Ureta created a perfect guitar shape, complete with a star-shaped hole in the middle,” says Atlas Obscura. “Using mostly cypress trees to form the outline, Ureta used blue eucalyptus trees to accent the strings on the neck of the guitar. Easily visible from airplanes, the guitar brings joy to many who fly over the Pampas.”

The guitar-shaped forest: the project stretches across 2/3 of a mile and is composed of over 7,000 trees. The forest that makes up the guitar has withstood tornadoes, hail, and lightning, but a fungus is threatening the cypress tress planted. “If I had to do it again, I would make the guitar with indigenous trees,” says Ureta.

Ureta hopes that one day the guitar-shaped forest will be preserved as a heritage site. Until then, this labor of love is maintained by Ureta and his family, on honor of his late wife. Here are some more images of the guitar-shaped forest memorial, via Inhabitat:

Man Plants Guitar-Shaped Forest In Honor Of Late Wife [Photos] is a post from: The Inquisitr