On Killing a Tree

GIEVE PATEL

Meaning of Poem

This poem is appreciating the resilient qualities of a tree. It takes years for a tree to grow into a full sized one. A tree grows at a slow pace consuming the earth. It keeps on absorbing water, air and sunlight for years and sprouts leaves from its skin in the process. In a sense a tree contains all the powerful energy which the mother earth provides. So this is very difficult to kill a tree. A simple knife injury won’t do the trick. This is opposite to frail human beings who can be killed by a knife.

One needs to chop the full tree, but even this won’t be enough. The tree heals it’s injured bark and from the ground it will once again rise with another miniature replica of its original self, which will ultimately grow to a full size tree. This is a great quality of rising from the ashes which we should try to learn. No matter how much adversity is around the corner one should never say it quits.

More than cutting the outer tree one needs to strangulate the real source of life of the tree. This is the root of the tree. This is the pure white and most sensitive part of the tree, which remains hidden inside the earth. The hidden root gives all the sustenance to a tree. One needs to snap this source of life to kill a tree.

Trees go on to live on for years. There are some trees in the Amazon forest which are said to be more than five hundred years old. We may take some lesson from them to spread our roots deep inside the earth. There had been some great people of yesteryears who still live in our memories. They had spread their roots inside our consciousness and as a result refuse to die.