Trees, Personified

In urban Jakarta, a 120-year-old mahogany tree has become such a landmark that it has its own Google-maps pin labelled as ‘historical’. This tree has a presence like you would tell a hundred years old tree to be — an overshadowing sky-piercing giant at almost 40 meters tall. In a human form, one might imagine it as an old man sitting on a throne made out of roots, with a white beard reaching to the knee. To me, the image of the three-eyed-raven comes to mind.

When I was a child, I remember watching this particular scene in Snow White, where she runs away from the huntsman into a creepy forest. The trees have eyes and teeth, their arm-like branches are coming to grab her at any time.

Those are few of extreme examples of trees as something else — as another being. But trees are its own remarkable being that often misunderstood. Their way of living is not all about ‘survival of the fittest’.

Peter Wohlleben, a German forester, in his book, “The Hidden Life of Trees” best depicts these qualities. Just like us humans supposed to be, trees learn from experience. They have to make decisions throughout their lives, like when do they shed their leaves? Where there might be more nutrients or moisture to let their root grow?

“We have generally thought of trees as striving, disconnected loners, competing for water, nutrients and sunlight, with the winners shading out the losers and sucking them dry.”

Just like humans being social, trees support each other and form an alliance. In an ideal condition or in every forest that is not too damaged. Trees can communicate through the air, using pheromones and other scent signals. Scientists are just beginning to deciphers how they communicate through the network, trees send chemical, hormonal and slow-pulsing electrical signals (how cool is that!).

Sure, these anthropomorphic metaphors aren’t perfect, but through it hopefully, we can come to shed our ignorance and blindness. People had never really looked at trees before or thought about life from their perspective. Associating human-like quality might work well for us to be more compassionate towards trees, our fellow living things which we often took for granted.

Trees are life, protect them and their ecological glory.