Tree lore: 'Why trees are ever standing'

 Hush the swish in your leaves

Tender twig, halt your play

Young trees, slow your sway

Listen to us old wood!

"it wasn't always this cool,

The sun didn't always just shine-

It burned oh! It scorched so!

We withered and wilted and shriveled:

Great Oak and his family cracked

Cedar- all tall and hard-barked,

Bristlecone pine and any other pine

All browned away and dried;

We knelt, lowered our sapped branches

Stretched our weary stalks and just about died.

It was a sad time such-

Cut up and shipped away,

The best of us-

Demeaned and baked into charcoal,

Or lumbered into timber- that vast tomb...

Oh, and cousin Sandal Wood, butchered for perfume!

We lost our graceful poise.

The rains ceased, rivers shrunk

What a season!

Then came along a girl, she of the green heart-

Born of the enemy but turned friend indeed!

Her love green as sap, Her word was her deed.

For every broken twig, she dropped her head

If a tree fell in Karura, she shed

Tears and cried, 'No! 

Desecrate no more!

Our heritage: green beauty of earth!'

The rest is history:

-the rise of the trees, the era of green

Which you, young tree now see-

Bountiful leaves on beautiful boughs,

The earth's safe again,

The state of our nation strong!

This legacy we remember her by

-Wangari wa Maathai-

A girl born of flesh but sprouted green-

Mother of trees!

Forest queen!

Diva in green!

Forever!"

 (As told by a 100 year old Cedar tree in 2092)