The soul of a tree

This tree has been feeding his blood & sweat to his children for a very long time. When he attained his puberty and the peak of power, thousands of buds sprouted through his pores and brought newborn babies into this world. The buds turned into flowers & the tree blushed and bloomed with his peak of youthfulness. The strong wind, rain, curious species stole some of his flowers & sometimes his own casual swings caused him to lose his beloved children. He never cared about losing anyone as he had thousands of others still blooming with him. With passing time, the flowers grew into fruits. They bathed together with the August shower, danced with the September breeze. And when October arrived, all of them sang songs with the Great Horned Owl.

While the time was flowing like a waterfall with unending water. There was a slow change taking place out there. Some fruits decided to leave their parent and explore another world. Some were snatched from the tree forcefully by selfish species; some were consumed by visiting birds. But the tree neither remorse nor cared. After all, he was young and could produce thousands more if wished for. On nights when the moon shone in full glow and earth blushed with her silver smile, the tree looked at himself with a feeling of pride over his charming body and strong limbs. The snakes cleaved to his youthful body and the night birds craved to taste his sweetness.

The law of the universe is such that nothing is permanent. When the earth was dancing around a ball of fire and the moon was completing his cycle of smiles, slowly but gradually, the tree was turning venerable. He lost his green glory and attained the yellow and red colors of wisdom. Unaware and unconcerned about his age, the tree lost all of his young children and finally survived with only one child – the last apple.

The aforementioned tree grew concerned now and started paying attention and affection to the last apple. Each of them grew fond of each other with the passing time and shared their silent moments with each other. The last apple adhered to his parent when clouds thundered in the sky. The tree hid this apple in the embrace of his leaves when visitors arrived. The apple climbed and sat on the shoulder of the tree when someone appeared to steal him. He fought bravely with the dry autumn air when they tried to squeeze humidity out of him. The parent and child duo remained together even when the tree was growing old and vulnerable.

The tree has now lost almost all of his silky leaf hair. The wrinkled bark skin of the tree is shredding every day while the stiffening branch bones are finding it hard to fight the shrilled winter air. The weakened root veins are finding it impossible to bring frozen water droplets trapped in the soil to his lever and his memory is fogging every moment in the absence of carbon. His shoulders have shrunken and dangling like a broken soul. On the nights when the moon shines, he starts sobbing when he looks at his black and bloodless stem. The only thing that comforts him is the last apple, his beloved child, his only living child. He knows that he can’t feed this apple anymore. He is scared that the apple may decide any day to leave his parent and move to another world where someone will polish him, praise him and possess him like a crown in a basket.

What do you think? The tree will have to experience the wrenching pain of losing his last child to the external world? or Will the last apple stay with his parent till the end?

The real question is that when the tree shall reborn with the arrival of spring, will his soul remember the pain of losing all fruits of life and preserving the last one? Or he too will forget it like the souls of humans?