Trees - Nature’s Gift to Man

Acacia trees, Ateneo de Manila University QC

By Anna Rotor

We grow up with trees.

We want them to grow big;

we want them to be around us;

to give us shade in which we play;

to give us strong trunk and branches

on which we climb and swing and laugh;

to give us fruits which make us full,

healthy and strong;

medicine to make us well;

wood that keeps our body warm,

cooks our food;

leaves to keep our air clean

and to whisper and sing

and dance with the breeze;

and above all,

to give us aesthetic beauty

through which we feel

how lucky we are alive.

How irrational would it be to kill a tree,

even if we reason out that we need its wood,

its bark, its roots, its flowers and fruits and seeds,

to keep us alive!

It is a paradox

that for us to survive and progress,

we kill the host of life –

life of birds that build nest on its branches,

passersby who find respite

from the beating sun,

a myriad of small life forms

from insects to lizards

that find a home

and harbor on its roots and crown.

What a paradox

if we kill the tree that gives us oxygen

that brings down the cloud as rain,

that keeps the environment cool, clean and green

to kill a friend,

a companion and a guardian,

the link of our earth and sun,

God and His Son.

Excerpt from a speech of Anna Rotor, then

16 years old at School of St. Anthony QC, 1999.