The trace is the absent part of the presence of a sign, gesture, moment, etc.
In other words, we define the trace as the sign left by the absent thing after it has passed through the state of presence. Any present, in order to define itself as present, bears the traces of an absence that defines it. It follows that a primordial present must bear a primordial trace, a present trace of a past that never happened, of an absolute past.
In order to be aware of the present it is necessary to understand and recognize the distance from the past or the future. What is not present does not exist, but what is not present may have existed in the past or may exist in the future.