A LIFE, A FOREST
Hoa particularly enjoyed afforestation. Since childhood, he had loved to pick up seeds to plant. Real estate was very cheap at that time, and there was still much deserted land. His classmates also asked him for baby trees and planted them around their houses. Hoa usually planted trees in the bare hills when he had free time. When he graduated from high school, trees had surrounded his neighborhood with their luxuriant shadow. The hill on the other side of the rice field was beautifully green, too.
Hoa inspired his friends to plant trees and creepers everywhere. These youngsters went around houses to ask for the owners’ permission to make those houses green. At first, the house owners were surprised. But eventually, they were all happily thankful to Hoa’s team.
With his ambition, Hoa went to Agriculture and Forestry College. After graduation, he became a forester. Besides protecting forests, he tried to plant trees as much as possible to widen forests. Of course, the person who greatly loved forest like him was a thorn to forest-bandits as they had no way to corrupt him to cut trees down.
One day, he discovered trees were being stolen. He called to report the situation to his boss, then took a gun to go there to stop the thieves. Unfortunately, it turned out that the forest-bandits were crowded and armed. They surrounded Hoa and tried to kill him. Shooting disturbed the whole forest. Hoa soon ran out of bullets and was forced into the deep forest without a way out. Hoa climbed to a cave on a high cliff to hide from the forest-bandits. They surrounded all sides waiting to kill him.
That Hoa disappeared for a whole week worried his family and his office. The army force in the province was sent to the forest to look for him, but they only met the forest-bandits, now disguised as woodsmen, picking up dried wood.
Hoa’s father had to ask for help from his friend, who was a Yin-yang fortune teller. He threw the coins, studied the signs and explained to the father:
“This man will have a way out while being near to death. This man has been nourishing lives for the Earth by planting trees. Therefore, he can never die painfully. This man always nurtures the lives of plants and birds, so he can never be miserable or starving. This man always fosters lives around him, so he will have a prosperous life.”
Hoa’s father felt a little relief and had hope. Apparently, what the fortune teller said turned out to be true. Hoa was in the cave without food or drink in hands. He could not get out because the forest-bandits were around. His phone had fallen somewhere while he was running away. Hoa had to go further into the cave to see if there was something helpful. It was weird that the cave was too narrow to walk, so he had to crawl little by little ahead, but the path seemed endless. Sometimes, he used his gun to check if there were snakes in front of him. He kept moving until he saw light shining upon a large space with a clean and beautiful pond. The scene was gorgeous as if he were in a fairy world. Hoa risked drinking water in the pond without worrying about poison. He also took some bird eggs to feed himself. The birds came down from a big hole above to make their nests in the hollow of this cave. It was so wonderful. He guessed that kind of bird ate snakes since he hadn’t seen any snakes around.
Exhausted, Hoa fell asleep while leaning on a dried trunk. Birds’ chirping woke him up at midnight. He wanted to wait for dawn, but fell asleep again. He was passionately in love with the scene so he didn’t want to leave soon. For days, he drank water in the pond and ate bird eggs. Maybe the birds would be mad at him, he thought.
After enjoying the natural wonder for days, he waited for the light shining down to the hollow again, then found a way to climb out of the cave. He grasped creepers and leaned against the cliff to get out. In front of his eyes were the forest where his colleagues and he had patrolled many times. However, they had never discovered that wonderful cave. It must be better to keep it secret from people. They might destroy the fairy world if they knew it.
Hoa took a long trail to avoid the forest-bandits and returned safely to the office. Afterward, an investigation was set up. All those forest-bandits were arrested. They were found seriously guilty of armed robbery and attacking officers. The other two foresters were arrested for their corruption and long collusion with the forest-bandits.
After that, Hoa was promoted and moved to work in the Provincial Department. His boss was afraid that the gangs would seek revenge. Hoa kept his habit of afforestation even at the new place. He was wealthy and prosperous later.
Afforestation creates more lives for the Earth. People who do that never come into a tight corner. Where there are forests there are places where birds and wild animals can live. That is why people who nurture forests have beautiful houses. There are so many benefits for all beings from forests. Anyone who tries to afforest will get a blessing of wealth later on.
Call upon our people to afforest as much as possible to keep our Earth well alive.
Janna