Once upon a time in a distant forest, there lived a little green leaf.
Ever since he was born he had wondered intensely about this world.
How and why it lived there, and what the world was like, and why it was just a little leaf,
and not something more majestic like those trees he saw standing proudly around him.
You see, the little leaf thought it was just a small, vulnerable leaf and nothing more.
Time passed and the leaf grew and grew. It was well into summer.
The sun's rays warmed it and it enjoyed the long days and cool nights...
It was then that he began to notice the other little leaves around him.
- But well, he said, where had they all been all this time?
You see, he was so busy with himself and his development,
he hadn't even noticed the other leaves on the branch.
Not to be unfair to it, of course, he was also growing and all his attention was on himself,
and those distant trees that he thought were so majestic and that he admired.
After all, that one was only a humble little leaf...
As he began to know his neighbors and converse with them he discovered many similarities.
They too wondered about life and its meaning and how happy they would be
if they looked like the tall trees...
Maybe it was that sudden summer shower and the strong wind that blew.
Or maybe it was the rainbow that came out right after.
The little leaf was suddenly awakened from its slumber and saw!
He saw all the other leaves, he saw the branches, he saw the broad strong trunk!
He saw the roots that were disappearing into the earth!
And he saw the top!
How tall that top was!
Try as he might to follow it with his eyes he could not quite succeed!
That sight was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen in his life! He couldn't believe his eyes!
A shiver ran through him and all the leaves of the tree fell with it.
Very soon the whole tree was pulsating in an internal rhythm from the roots to the top.
The little leaf lost its individuality.
It became a tree.
And the tree became the forest.
Alexandra Sotiropoulou
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