Burn-clearing

The years have passed by me again. I’ve been stuck here doing nothing for years on end. It’s not a bad life though. The people are nice, the forest is calm and quiet and it’s the perfect place to collect your thoughts. But sometimes it gets a bit boring, like now, which is why I’m going to tell you a story about people who made new farmland here. The place is now empty, but I still remember it like it was yesterday.
There were people removing the bark of the trees a few meters up, so that the trees would dry up and that way they could cut them down easily. I saw children helping their parents by doing little things around the place.
A few years went by, as I watched the place slowly coming together. The trees were cut down and ready to be burned. I sometimes catch myself thinking: what if that was my fate? What if my home forest was to be burnt?
Anyway, continuing. Somebody set the trees on fire, and this next step was the most challenging: To keep the fire from spreading. Someone had to guard the fire always.
So, the trees were burned and now all there was left was nutritious ash. People started planting crops to the burn-beaten land. Soon the people had to do this again in another place, because the nutrients didn’t last very long. That’s why I’m alone again.


A student from Kesalahti school