The Earth moaned. Its moans were especially bitter in silence, at night…
…What happened to you, my eldest children… (it always called people its eldest ones, thinking that they should be the cleverest and the wisest in Nature… At least they had to be such…) …Didn’t I give you enough wonderful rivers, lakes and seas with clear and blue water? Weren’t my fields, orchards and forests beautiful and the air above them pure and clear..? Didn’t I give you pleasure and joy with all my tasty fruit and berries that were so pleasant even to look at..? I wanted all of you to be happy and healthy and strong… Wasn’t there enough place and water for all of you? But you poisoned my waters… and the fruit and vegetables… They grew so cheerfully for you, and now… how can they give you health..?
In early days you breathed the air with all your lungs, breathing out happy laughter and gay songs… And now the polluted air brings forth but coarse voices…
How can I want to live and bloom, if my whole body aches with burns and wounds of your battles and fights… You bandage and cure the wounds of your friends but nobody thinks of mine… And they become deeper and deeper with each coming generation! The air around me is so stuffy and polluted that I can hardly breathe and hold you all… The land is so poisoned that I can hardly feed you…
You all think about the little homes you live in. You dust and clean and take care of them, but why? Why don’t you take care of your big home – the land you live in – the Earth? When you gather in your small homes, does one of you eat the whole cake, leaving the rest hungry? Do you poison your tea before drinking it? Think, my eldest children, what I had given to you, what you have already done and what you are coming to… Stop your battles… You are all one big family… Let each one take his piece of bread…
Give hands to each other, be friendly… and let me bloom for you… let the waters be clean and the air clear… be happy and let the children of your children be happy too. Let your smaller brothers and sisters (that’s how the Earth called the animals, birds and plants) live and be happy… moaned the Earth, but people hardly heard or wanted to hear it. Then, sometimes, its grief and suffering became so unbearable, that it burst into bitter tears… and floods appeared… or even earthquakes, when the sobs simply tore apart its weeping breast… but people never understood the reasons of those calamities and that deep pain… They didn’t… Maybe you will hear and understand those full of pain moans?.. While it’s not too late…