Ambika

Once upon a time my leaves were as yellow as a dirty fellow and my trunk was a fiery red. It was around the same time that dinosaurs stomped around the earth and all land was one. And yes, all trees were the same color as me. I lived like that for many a millennia. Spinning around the blazing sun with my branches held aloft, carrying in their sheltering twigs little birds and their eggs and squirrels and nuts. Many million moons later I met a painter no taller than dwarf Dopey (from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs) named Twinkleton. His eyes sparkled like the stars and his tiny feet moved faster than that of the squirrels that still run all over me. He spent days scrutinising me taking copious notes all the while. And finally one day, he brought along buckets laden with the color blue. He jumped from one branch to the other splashing the color blue to each of my yellow leaves. Once he’d finished, he turned upon my trunk adding the color green to it. And after that, he stood at a distance appreciating his work. Little Twinkleton had transformed me. He then repeated this exercise with each and every tree. But I wonder if he managed to color all the trees. Or could he have missed that one tree that still stood out, odd and alone with its yellow leaves and red trunk.



(on a tree)