At first glance, it was just an ordinary tree minding
its own business and doing what trees do. It was, to be honest, like any other
tree that I had walked past.
And yet for some reason, I had stopped for this one.
The longer I stood there, looking up among its
branches, listening to the faint rustling of its leaves, the more I began to
notice about it. Something about it was mysterious. It could be its atmosphere or
some sort of energy, resonating from the tips of its leaves down to the raw
earth below. Distant memories of things and people it had seen might be carved
into the very rings of its bark.
Untold secrets might have been kept hidden within it
for thousands of years, flowing endlessly through its veins. That ring, that
ring that encircles it like a protective barrier, that ring that surrounds it
like a line not to be crossed, it might have even been a fairy ring!
I knew instantly that sometime before the beginning of
time itself, sometime before humans had even begun cultivating this land, this
was once an important tree.
As the sun bled into the horizon in the evening sky, I
watched as the tree slowly began to fade.
Little by little, it withered and waned. The green of
its leaves was sucked away, the brown of its bark faded into a dull grey. Now
it became a mere silhouette, a memory of what it used to be. Grieving while
fading into darkness, it might be thinking about moments that were lost in
time, hoping to live out those happier memories that were long gone. Its roots
clung to the soil like it was the only thing it had left, and its branches,
like bony fingers, scratched and scrabbled desperately at the uncaring sky. It
was painful to witness, like seeing a lover that no longer existed.
And yet I stood there still, and watched, and watched,
and watched.
With no streetlights on, it blended into the night,
only to live out this curse again for the rest of its life. The tree had been,
and perhaps still was, special, but it had been cast out by every other tree in
the park. It had forgotten how majestic it was, and demoralised itself for not
being able to fit in.
I said a silent prayer for it, praying that one day it
would realise how beautiful it was. That one day, it would bloom the rarest and
most aromatic flowers no one had ever seen.
That one day, it would finally find
itself.