For the love of one Tree.
Author's Note:
I was sitting in the car waiting for my turn to move
another inch in the cluster of cars on the same road. I was watching the tree
and I said; you may have a lot to tell us more about life as I have seen you
before when I was much younger. Then it struck me why the tree does have a tale
to tell.
It was a hot day
when I came to break the soil surface. I made it here as a seed, nurtured by
the soil which enclaves me in its hold and let the warmth of the sun to permeate
my shell so that I can grow. For days, I slowly mold myself into the little
sprout that springs into the warm sunlight. Soon I will be big like my father
and his father before that. But first I must grow to be the height of a man. Why?
I will explain.
It's not easy to
be small although you are not hunted upon like many other living creatures, you
are too small to be noticed. Even the smallest creature can trample you or break
your stem. I have seen many of my kind perish in this way though it's not the
fault of the creature nor us, but these are the rules of life here. I am the blessed
one to be growing off the normal trails of the creatures so the risk of being
trampled is less. I strive hard to grow with the little sunlight I can get that
the leaves can trap in the branches. I am still young so I need not the full
strength of the sun's rays.
The days passed
and I am still around and it was only the day before I was almost pushed aside
by the slimy slithering creature who went past my stem. It took the daisies next
to me and the decaying mushroom on the deadwood. But I will prevail even when
the moisture from the skies come down with force. But those days came to pass,
and I am now about two feet off the soil surface. Twice I have been pushed over
but I managed to straighten up again. I can see some distance now and I have my
branches out with a cluster of leaves.
The growth of my
body grew with strength as the sunlight and the moisture in the ground feeds my
roots and leaves. I am growing now to a height of five feet. I saw a creature
came to the older tree near me. It took measurements and then it marked the
barks on the trunk. It was two days to it when more creatures came and took the
older tree down. I don’t know to be happy or to be sad, as the removal of the
tree gave me ground to grow faster with the more exposed sunlight and open soil
for my roots to spread. I watched as the men took the older tree down, removed
its branches, and then cut its trunk. I can hear its cry for assistance and
then the plea for mercy but who listens in this forest when we are mute and
deaf.
Soon I grew and
became a noted tree with a trunk that holds well to the soil. I had little
friends coming to live at my base and also in my branches. There is the chirpy
sounds of the birds and the flaps of the butterflies; there are the flying
foxes and their enemies, the slithering ones that moved on my branches. I don't
mind that as long they don’t feed on my branches their catch. The irritating
ones are the monkeys who come to rest on me and pluck my leaves.
I did not know what
time means in my life but I was always growing. Soon I became big and strong,
with my branches leaping over others in the chase for more sunlight. It was
also then, I remember the creature who took refuge at my trunk base, and then
it hurts me as these creatures seem to play at my base. The metal pieces scrape
my bark and create a long gash of cuts on my trunk. I had time to grow and
recover from my wounds.
I grew higher and
more and spread out my branches, and then I saw the bird flying creatures came
with their fierce droppings. They dig up massive holes in the soil and removed
many of my young ones and sometimes one of us. I prayed hard I will be saved
and I was. For some time, there was nothing to worry about except for the
normal creatures which come roaming.
It was on one of
these days, that I noticed the number of creatures that ply the trails is
reducing by the numbers. Soon it became more few and on some days, there was
none. I rumbled to the other living creatures like me but they kept silent. But
what irks me more was the young creatures that came to carved silly marks on my
trunks. Don’t they know how painful when metal material scrape your bark But it
was also then I could feel the air was not the same as before? They are a lot of
contaminants in the content and my pores are suffering from it. I began to lose
more leaves than I normally do. My barks begin to feel coarse and hard as a
result of the contaminants. I looked out from the top and what was green on the
horizon is now gray in the colors. More to it, I can see the metal materials
looming over yonder, and it's creepy to see them higher than my height. They
are hard and cold materials and now they come to loom over us. More to it, they
remain so strong against the elements.
I slipped back into
my forest and await my destiny soon to come. I gathered my thoughts and sort
out the important ones to be remembered. I checked on the scars and markings of
my development and retained the ones I know I may need to remember. It's sad to
me as from a young sapling to what I am now; a two hundred feet high adult tree
with a base of fifteen over feet, I am about to lose it all soon.
The moment came
and more strange creatures came. They took more measurements and placed markers
of their works on me. I know not what they scribbled but it brought many more
living creatures daily. They stand before me and they watched me as I swing to
the winds. They take flashes of me like the lightning but no thunder strikes my
base trunk. Just like the first time I met these creatures years ago, they caused
me pain at the base of the trunk before they go off.
Today they come
but they caused me no pain at the base. It's the air they contaminate that
poisoned my growth. I desired no more growth as I cannot bear to see above me
and yonder. It's like I am an island in the vast ocean with the waves ever
lapping at the beach. You will never know when the waves will cover me overall
and I will not exist.
But before that, I
want to lean down and tell these living creatures my memories so that they can
remember me. But every time I see them looking at me, I felt I have been
violated on my soul. They feel my trunk and roots for my growth yet their minds
think of me as planks for their homes.
So tell me how can
I share my memories with them when they looked to me as a commodity and not as
a friend. If I do share my memories, it's only the selected ones I will do as
to preserved myself with them. Such is the trust we had developed between us
living creatures. The shadow of deceit betrays our trust in each other a long
time ago and in which we never learned to believe in total trust of each other
ever again.
The small living
creature spoke my mind; ‘Dad, if trees can talk, do you think they can tell me
more of our past?’
‘Trees are not like
us. They can’t talk. They are grown for their use to us in our life.’
‘But Dad, I said
it they can.... would they tell us?’
Somehow If I could
talk like they do, I would but I will choose only the selected memories as I
don't think I want to tell it all. In time they may discover more of it and
then they may say; ‘if only we knew’.
( Not all the
memories of the past are ever taught on by the living; it's only discovered
long after the living has become the memories.. )
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