I am a Ceiba tree. With that name I’m known by these sides, but scientifically my name is Ceiba pentandra . I was born over four hundred years ago, when in my habitat there was only impenetrable forest. I never dreamt to become as leafy as my parents.
When I stared with my tender look at the tree tops of my ancestors, I was held awe by the power of my creator.
That amazement of fellows in a colossal fight to reach the sun was simply a singular spectacle. Around me, life sprouted as natural water spring, thousands of birds and animals gently brushed my tender and fragile stem, collecting fruits that my grandfathers generously provided.
I thought that perhaps I would never come to reach the necessary stature to look at the horizon, because I imagined that above those giants, the world had to be marvelous. How I admired the jaguar and the turkeys that could move around the forest and look spellbound at that wonder of life that extended kilometers of where I was. With the passage of time I grew up, many of my grandfathers succumbed naturally to the march of the years. The space they left was immediately occupied by another and with the sunlight that I received by intervals, I was growing and taking the shape of a tree. From my erect stem sprouted small branches that little by little would give me the appearance of a kapok tree.
All was peace and harmony, the breath of God rocked our foliage and his tears spoke of the blue crystalline sources. That silent sacrosanct was only interrupted by the monkeys that screamed at being pillaged by yellow and black spots, that moved as a ghost grabbed in the thickness, or by shrill shouts of those multicolored birds, that by the hundreds they placed themselves in the Peinemicos, to open with their strong beaks the hard fruit from which they feed.
I observed the jaguar many times awaiting in a branch for the last Cariblanco of the countless herd, and heard its shouts of agony when it was avidly devoured. On my limbs I watched the birth of many Chivillas and the fearless nesting of the sly Gongolona. In my foliage I harbored thousands of birds, that cooed me with their songs and fertilized the land so it could grow energetically.
The years passed in a caravan, many giants succumbed around me after completing their biological cycle, giving me space and light so that along with other young ones, we could spread ourselves towards the summit. Life passed uninterrupted, many winters passed and I grew and took shape. I don’t know why I was the favorite of my winged sisters who in huge flocks populated my branches, perhaps it was because I loved poetry and in my foliage the wind hummed happy songs, they turned to me to create that celestial chorus that I still nostalgically yearn for today.
Time went by, a lot of time perhaps, I knew all types of animals and birds, my neighbors, endless rows of ants that passed by my side devouring all types of insects. I saw the sky breaking in the horizon and I heard its echo bouncing among the mountains foretelling a storm. But!, one day I was left mute with amazement, with a strange thing among its hands appeared before me a strange being, it should be an animal that don’t know, walked on two legs, instead of skin, it was covered with strange garments and with what surely were its hands, carried to it’s mouth a tiny twig and then threw smoke like when a tree is split by lightning.
My amazement grew even bigger when after a while other of those strange animals appeared. In spite of never having seen or heard those strange animals, I knew they were men, that being that God created in his own image to be the lord of all things on the world. Something inside me made me understand that from that moment on, that would be the master and executioner of all that surrounded me, with strange instruments they began to chop as many trees as they could find around me, I was spared because I was probably too big and probably God
With my contrite heart I saw as hundreds of my brothers fell, but not only trees were sacrificed, they also killed for pleasure my bird sisters, the great rodent, the fawn and the jaguar, the frightened and surprised monkeys that looked dumbfounded as they destroyed their habitat. Soon I remained alone in that deserted landscape. Now all around me, only weak grass grew, devoured by enormous animals that vaguely recalled to me the goat and the deer. Little by little my horizon expanded, I could see where countless refuges were erected with the wood of my brothers to shelter those despicable beings, I listened in anguish the lament of thousands of my brothers when they were knocked down by this merciless predator. I did not listen again the chatter of the parrots and parakeets, neither the noise of the jaguar, neither the shriek of the monkeys, the wind in my foliage did not sing, its voice was gloomy and empty as if announced a cataclysm. My master chopped, killed and set on fire. Hundreds of species disappeared for ever, the springs dried up and the few rivers and creeks that remained turned their water blue and crystalline in diffuse artificial colors, product of the contamination. I have remained alone, erect and majestic, as a mute witness of that catastrophe, until today I remain intact, by the grace of God. I am the admiration of al who visit me, in my interior I have engraved the images of four generations. When you look at me, think that if your ancestors had not been so cruel and egotistical, today I would not be alone. And when all this is lost and you have eliminated yourself, my creator will again populate the land, and I will ask him that he never again put you on her.

Juan B