Vladimir Guerrero
Section 29
Final Draft
October 16, 2010
Trees to Humus
Humans abuse the wonders and resources of the world we call nature, like the giant Oak trees with branches as long as giraffes that attract so much attention. We abuse the vast range of forest that serve as homes for thousands of animals each year. We abuse the waters that were once clear but are now infested with pollution. We abuse the air we breathe by releasing thousands of toxins into the sky per minute. Nature wasn’t made to be destroyed it was made to be cherished and examined. More people have to take time to admire the beauty of nature and take less time destroying it.
John Lubbock reiterates, “Earth and sky, woods and fields, lakes and rivers, the mountain and the sea, are excellent schoolmasters, and teach some of us more than we can ever learn from books”. We can learn many things from nature about the clouds and the grass. But we choose to destroy our surrounding instead of preserving it, like uncooperative students in a classroom. Instead of cutting down the trees and building facilities that causes more pollution we should expand the ranges of forest in cities across the nation. We seem to find a way to destroy nature in little ways but they accumulate over time. My spot wasn’t overwhelmed with pollution when I first went there but I know it will get worst.
As I stroll down the long narrow man made path there are intersections to take me into many different areas of the forest. I take the short but dangerous way to my spot. As I watch the sunrise, I quote Henry David Thoreau, “beams, - and then a puff of smoke rises in the horizon to join its misty relatives in the skies”. I proceed to go under and over trees that have suffered from either strong bolts of thunder or have gotten weaker over time. Finally I’m at my spot, I kick the Mountain Dew cans and Poland spring bottles to the side and I sit on the dead log. The log is long and strong and serves as a great seat and it probably served as a great home for a squirrel in its past. I began to notice that every tree probably has their own unique story to tell and I would give anything to know about the life that’s keeping us alive. I would like to know how the various holes in trunks came to be, or why there is a missing branch on a tree that is secluded from the others. Also why there’s a tree that seems to not be affected by the wind and rain as heavily as others. But then there’s this one tree that seems to have lost a giant branch but it is still fighting to survive, literally hanging by a twig. The leaves are slowly fading away like the sun slowly falling below the horizon. The branch that is barely connecting seems to be serving as some kind of bridge for insects and sly animals. Each tree has its own style. There is a tree with leaves the color of a freshly brewed beer. And there is another with leaves as bright as a florescent light bulb. Some leaves are beginning to lose their color slowly become as red as a lite match. Then there is the dangerous tree with thorns to scare away any insect and sometimes even scare away humans. Some tree trunks are a lot thicker than others which usually mean that are a lot taller and carry more water. Their doesn’t seem to be lots of grass growing near the log due to the heavy amounts of ash and soda cans destroying the nutrients in the soil. It seems like every time I visit my spot there is less life it started with one water bottle on the ground to an arsenal of sodas and energy drinks and even beer. My spot seems to be different during the day and night.
During the day I can see all the holes in the leaves clearly as if the heat from the sun was strong enough to burn holes through the leaves. The tree tops seem closer to the ground and the branches seem reachable, everything comes to life. The squirrels make their daily routines through the trees for nuts. I can’t help but scan the area over and over, as if my head were a security camera outside the white house, because I know there is so much going on around me but there is no way to see it with the human eye. Photosynthesis is going on all around me as I sit on my log. There are millions of off springs being planted rite before my eyes. Big chunks of pollen fly over my head as I try to cover myself as if it were a snow blizzard. The pollen irritates my eyes but I put up with the pain. The wind tickles the leafs
The walk through the man made path gets harder as the sun goes down. After tripping over a few roots and getting poked by a thorn I finally make it to my spot, but the scenario is much different. I start to see moving shadows but I soon come to notice that it’s the branches of the trees trying to hide in the shadows. The scene isn’t as amazing as it was in the morning, the leaves went from florescent and colorful to dark and intimidating. As I sit and try to look between the trunks of the trees in hopes to find the end of the forest the forest begins to look like a scene out of a horror film as if Jason is hiding behind tree after tree until he finally gets in reach of me. But there still seems to be some kind of illumination as if the moon has absorbed some of the suns energy to provide an extra source of light. There’s a random hole in the branches of this one tree leaving a spot light, but there’s no MC. The light from the moon seems to hit the soil and I’m skeptical because I don’t remember the moon being as bright as it is on this night. It was a full moon and the sky began to look darker the more I stared into the moon hoping to turn into a werewolf, but my will wasn’t strong enough. The ruffling of leaves always catches my attention even though I know the chances of seeing a fox or anything of danger is one in a million. As hard as I try to find something unique at my spot all I see is squirrels so I decide to see what squirrels do In the dark. I hear the ruffling of dead leaves and try to follow the furry tail with the light from my blackberry as best as I could while trying to dodge what seem to be mutated leaves and hundreds of thorns. The squirrel scatters through the empty Coors light cans and Rockstars and clings onto a tree like Spider man and somehow manages to catapult itself from the branch into the darkness.
I return to my spot after a heavy rainstorm fighting the mud step by step as my feet stick to the ground. Each rain drop is like a water bomb causing the leaf to lose all its resources and start the gathering process again. The rain slips down the trunk slowly until it finally reaches the soil. Each leaf has its own pond until they begin to leak little by little. The rain darkens the trunks as it goes from day to night. Every branch is drenched begging for sunlight because the moons illumination isn’t enough. It feels like all life is dead in the forest, but looks can be deceiving. The rain Is essential for the survival of plants and trees. As plants is essential for the survival of humans. Trees can even be our shelter as in Curtis Neeley’s photograph Tree-hut. I can’t tell whether the hut was built before or after, but either way the image gives me the thought that there is some kind of connection between the hut and the tree. I choose this image because it’s opposite of what happens today. Instead of trees being cut down to make shelters this hut is using the tree as its shelter. More people need to learn how to appreciate the wonders of the world they can teach us more than any lecture in school.
Works Cited
Celarent, Barbara. "Walden; Or, Life in the Woods . By Henry David Thoreau . Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1854. Pp. 357." American Journal of Sociology 115.2 (2009): 649-55. Print.
"John Lubbock Quotes." Famous Quotes and Quotations at BrainyQuote. Web. 19 Oct. 2010.
Neeley, Curtis. Tree-hut. 2007. Photograph.
