Green is the color of life. It signifies the fullness of life. Green is also the odor of life. Green does not destroy anything nor put down anything. Instead, green keeps sprouting. It sprouts from the earth and fills the earth with green. Open your eyes and see. Open your heart and listen. Now let a grain of green grow also in your veins. The shade we enjoy today is the result of the heat of the Sun someone bore.
In certain language, we use the term ‘green person’ as a symbol of transparent persons. It is because they do not hide anything. They open up their life before us. A scanning of their lives will reveal their inside and outside. ‘To live means to be alive.’ It also means to help others to live.
In whatever way we cut off, uproot or wither, there are some relationships in our lives that sprout up again. Relationships of love, friendship and care. Relationships that nurture us when we are down. If not, we must have such relationships. If we do not have them, remember that our roots have withered. A fruitless tree may provide shade. But it is a burden to the earth in the eyes of the world. One day, it will be cut down and cast into the fire. If we are not able to produce good fruits of sharing, compromising, reconsidering and being humble in our family and society, remember that it is time to prune the branches and apply manure.
All the whims of life will not satisfy us always. Nevertheless, if we are able to become an oasis for others, our life becomes meaningful. Seasons may change. Even during the season of fall, when all the leaves have fallen, let us try to keep a green space within us. In a poetry book, the poet writes “The roots embrace beneath the soil when we planted them separately to avoid the leaves touching each other.” Let us unite in love.
On the verges of rural pathways, there are trees that never bear fruits, whom people condemn as a burden to the earth. We have sat beneath them occasionally.
Come, let us sit beneath the shades of these green trees. Let us share our hearts, disclose the things we have forgotten to tell. The green tree will witness our confession. Perhaps we will also be judged like this. Our own people may abandon us thinking that our roots have withered.
We will be alone. Perhaps, there won’t be anyone to wait for us one more time. We would blossom once again if only we received a pat or encouragement. But more than the heat we bore in the summer, it is criticisms and farewells that are left over.
Once you feel that you are withered from within, do not hesitate any more. Create springs of care and caress. Let us be one among the trees planted on the banks of a river. Let us recall the good old days we lost. It is not yet late. Even though we are not able to give shades, let us sow new seeds. Seeds of love and friendship.
Let them grow. Let us meet again under the shadow of these green trees. Let us lovingly remember the green trees that offered us shade. Because “human life is like a grass. It spouts up in rain and wither in hot wind.” Nothing but gratitude for all.
Even if time transplant us to new places, let us grow up and help others to grow. Let us not be like bonsai trees that cannot run their roots deeper, but be like huge sequoia trees that conquer the boundaries of the earth with their roots and the sky with their height.
