In the forest stands a great tree. It has lived for hundreds of years, nourished by the sun’s light, the bee’s pollination and the rain poured out from clouds. The tree is steadfast and firm, lacking nothing. The tree lives growing, knowing that it is at peace with its surroundings. The rushing wind tickles its leaves and the sweetness of the trees around it and the liveliness in their roots, tangled up, together, thriving almost as if they were one. The tree survives, thrives, knowing how to live. It is content in its peaceful environment. Content with the way animals scurry across its trunk, bees dancing along its wrinkles. Content with the seasons, ever changing but ever the same. It sheds leaves, it grows leaves, practically glowing with magnificent colors. The wind spreads leaves, swirling them around almost as if to outline the tree. Its wood is thick and the red is proud of its thick trunk knowing it has outlived many and has seen the earth when it was little. It has seen the earth before humans, calm and quiet and somehow it knows it’s end. The beautiful tree saw the earth young and it saw the earth grow, cities appearing in its wake. But the tree doesn’t mind because its environment is ever the same. Its companions are ever the same. The tree is ever the same. Its branches are firm and unwavering but as it stands tall and firm and it hears the murmur of humans. It hears the trees falling down around it and it shivers. It hears trees being cut, dragged away, and animals scurrying away. It hears the crunch of leaves, pressed between the ground and the soles of human shoes. The tree remains determined thinking that it will live, thinking that the humans will leave and the forest may return to what it once was, but even then it feels foolish. It feels the roots of other trees, entangled in its own, loosen and die. The tree wonders what the forest has done to deserve this. The trees around it begin to sag with fear and defeat yet this tree quivers, but stands tall and proud until the whirring noise of human machines near it.
Bio: I’m a rising Freshman aspiring to use my writing to spread awareness on unspoken topics.
