Simple Verses (Spanish: Versos sencillos) is a poetry collection by Cuban writer and independence hero José Martí.
[2] Among the poems in the collection are Yo soy un hombre sincero (I), Si ves un monte de espumas (V) and Cultivo una rosa blanca (XXXIX).
[3] The bulk of the book was written in 1890 while Martí was convalescing in a small town called Haines Falls in the Catskill Mountains.
[6] Cultivo una rosa blanca (XXXIX)[7] is often one of the first poems learned by school children in Latin America.
[1] In 2007, to celebrate the 154th anniversary of the author's birth, students laid white roses at the foot of the José Martí Memorial in Havana's Plaza de la Revolución.