Every Leaf a Hallelujah by Ben Okri

Author:Ben Okri [Okri, Ben]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: Other Press
Published: 2022-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

“How can she help? She’s too small to help,” said a conifer.

“The ones who are big are the ones who are destroying us. Maybe it’s the small ones who will help. At least they listen. She’s listening now,” said an ube.

“That’s all we’ve wanted. Someone to listen,” replied a teak.

“Be quiet, everyone. The eldest has spoken,” said a masquerade tree.

“Why are you here?” the eldest, the baobab, asked again.

“Because I have to get a flower that can cure my mother of her illness. It will help the whole village too.”

“I know the flower you seek. You will not find it. The tree that it grows near has been cut down.”

“Cut down?” cried the girl, alarmed. “Who cut it down?”

“Your people,” returned a smaller tree angrily.

“What she means,” the baobab intoned, “is that your fellow human beings did it.”

“Why?”

“Why?” asked the baobab, and a strange sound ran through the trees, through their leaves, through their trunks. At first it sounded like laughter.

“Why are you laughing?”

“That’s not laughter. It’s the sound the wind makes through the new gaps in the forest,” said the smaller tree.

“You want to know why they cut us down?” the baobab said.

“Yes, if you don’t mind.”

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