  This friendly introduction to tropical geometry is meant to be accessible to
first year students in mathematics. The topics discussed here are basic
tropical algebra, tropical plane curves, some tropical intersections, and
Viro's patchworking. Each definition is explained with concrete examples and
illustrations. To a great exten, this text is an updated of a translation from
a french text by the first author. There is also a newly added section
highlighting new developments and perspectives on tropical geometry. In
addition, the final section provides an extensive list of references on the
subject.
