A tree to me is Nature’s Department Store. There you can find just about anything you need:
Atmospheric balance between oxygen and carbon dioxide
Shelter and refuge for birds, insects and people
Raw materials for construction and other items
And even food for some
Obviously, this in not a comprehensive list. I’m no scientist, but I would hate to imagine the world without trees.
I grew up in southwest Louisiana, where oak trees, with their moss-laden branches, shade the fields; and where cypress trees, with their knobby roots, dot the marshes.
Indeed, my first memories as the child that I was, and the child that I remain, are of these majestic energy-recycling machines. They form a vital part, not only of Nature’s eco-system, but of its artistic beauty as well. Trees are part of my identity. They give me strength. They are part of me, and I am part of them.
So when I moved to Panama several years ago, I felt at home and welcomed, by its warm and friendly people and its very warm and tropical rainforest. And when my relatives would ask, “What’s the weather like in Panama?” I would say, “It’s hot, but it’s cool under a tree.”
And when my husband and I bought our first home, a tiny chalet, the lot was barely 400 square meters and the house took up 9/10 of that, leaving only 25 square meters around the building. In that tiny lot, we planted 6 trees: 1 almond, 1 avocado, 1 Pride of India, 1 Guayacán, and 2 Ordeals that lined the street. We were determined to have shade. I think ours was the only house on the block with trees, and everyone parked in front of it. Why? For the shade, of course!
Later, we moved to the Reverted Area of Los Ríos, and we were fortunate to have in our yard 6 trees: 1 palmera, 2 Robles, 1 Guayacán, and 2 Ordeals that line the street. But even though ours is not the only house on the block with trees, everyone still parks in front of our house for the shade!
This should tell us something! What is everybody looking for? Shade!
And that takes me to how my little bilingual book The Shadeless Kingdom (El reino sin sombra) came about. On a hot Sunday in April, 2003, I stepped out of the coolness of St. Mary’s Church in Balboa. You could feel the steam rising in waves above the sidewalk. – Era un calor del Diablo – literally. St. Mary’s is a very close-knit and social community. Despite the heat from the sun-baked patio, people gather to chit-chat about the weather, the country and business in general. Lots of deals are made here, and that’s when my good friend Alex Sosa came up to me and said, “I have a project for you – one that can help make a difference in this country. Why don’t you write a story that will encourage children to take care of our forests?”
I said, “I already have that. There’s William Worm’s adventures as a Tunnel Engineer. He and his brother Robert and his cousins John and Hector are recycling experts.”
“We need more than William Worm’s adventures,” he said. “We need to encourage children not only to recycle but also to plant trees and take care of the forests we have. We need to get them when they’re young. If we do something now, maybe in a generation we’ll have this country truly sustaining its forests. I already have the theme: something along the lines of ‘If each one of us plants a tree, together we’ll plant a forest.’”
Always up to a writing challenge, I said, “Okay, give me a few days, and I’ll see what I can come up with.” Meanwhile, I was invited to San Pedro Sula, Honduras, for a book fair, and if you think it’s hot in Panama in April, go to San Pedro Sula in May. Inspired by San Pedro Sula’s warm May winds, the rough draft practically wrote itself.
But I wasn’t satisfied with just the story. I felt it needed more than just a story. Not only should it encourage children to care for the nation’s forests, but they needed a tiny bit of instruction on how to do that. Thus, “How to plant a tree and help it grow” became part of the format.
But still I felt something was missing, and that’s when the child in me – the child that I am, the child that I remain, said, “What about the Tree in me?” And that’s when the poem “Me, the Tree” wrote itself.
This together with the beautifully inspired illustrations by my daughter Andrea, who captured my ideas and gave them life, reminds us how taking care of this wonderful gift of Nature is our responsibility, and if we want shade, we need only plant a tree. And as Alex Sosa said, “If each one of us plants a tree, together, we’ll plant a forest.”
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