The Love of Trees or the Lack of it

A couple of hundred yards away from my home is a near vacant property lot. The owner is a lady who has another lot on which she has built her home nearby. She is a trained beautician and has set up a small beauty parlor in a corner of the plot. In another corner are two small rooms that she has given for free to a laboring man and his family. In return for the room, they keep an eye on the property and do some cleaning. However, most of the lot is just barren leveled mud.

The lady understandably does not wish to develop a garden in it because maintaining it would become an additional chore. Perhaps she does not want to grow large trees in it either because those would become a problem if a large building was ever to be constructed on the plot as is likely someday in future. She does not permit the laborer to grow vegetables in the vacant lot because then it would cause a rise in the water bill that is substantial in urban areas. Therefore the plot is more or less a vacant mud lot, a bit of an eye sore in an otherwise well developed area and it has been so for more than two decades.

Every time I pass near this plot, I feel disappointed at this barren state of mother earth because if not big trees more than fifty small fruiting trees or flowering trees could have been grown in it. They are easy to remove if ever construction begins. If planted in monsoon seasons the trees hardly require any watering in the first two years and none after that. There are a number of small fruit trees such as seedless lime, pomegranates, custard apples and dwarf mangoes that grow well in the area and require no maintenance. There would be a small initial expense in procuring the saplings and planting them but in subsequent years the fruit produced will compensate for the expense many times over. She has the labor and staff to assist her in the task. Moreover, with the added beauty of greenery her beauty business is sure to attract more and better clients and offer them, her staff as well her plot privacy from thousands of eyes that pass in front of her home daily. The greenery shall promote peace and happiness and nothing succeeds in life like happiness. In fruiting seasons it shall delight all. Scented flowering bushes shall be a magnet for her beauty business.

This was just one example, but in my travels around the world I have encountered many others who seem neither to love trees nor see any need to plant any even if they have the opportunity to. Humans make use of many trees while they live and when they die they need more for their coffins or funeral pyres. If they do not plant any they just take from mother earth without giving back anything lasting in return.

Around a hundred years ago, human population was small and there were many more forests on the planet. Therefore, the value of planting trees has not been passed down to humans sufficiently through their cultural heritage. It is not so anymore. Removal of trees and forests leads to global warming, increased pollution and climate extremes. Planting trees arrests this change.

Dear reader, hope you have been inspired enough to get out there and plant some trees in areas that you have access to. Mother Earth shall surely bless you if you do.