What does the glass display cabinet at the restaurant represent?

El Diablo Restaurant was created over Islote de Hilario, named after a legendary character from Lanzarote who after the war in the Philippines lived here as a hermit. It is said that he lived only with his female camel. Hilario planted a fig tree that rooted but never managed to bear fruit. Legend has it that “the flower couldn’t feed from the flame".

In the glass display cabinet there are camel bones next to the dry trunk of a fig tree. This is a symbolic tribute to Hilario’s legend. César Manrique wished to captivate us and make us think about this apparent “lifeless garden” over the ashes of the volcano. Art critic Lázaro Santana, in  his book Timanfaya, compares it to the famous Japanese “dead gardens” were people went to retreat and meditate. This same author interprets the glass around the display as a fine line between life and death, and where the landscape that we can see through the glass is intended by the artist.