As September 21, the International Day Against Monoculture Tree Plantations, draws ever closer, we continue to collect reflections, experiences and testimonies that capture the prodigious life of forests, so utterly different from the sterile uniformity of industrial tree plantations.
Myths, legends and stories comprise a rich treasury of knowledge and collective observation that preserves essential and symbolic elements of everything of significance to human beings.
And that is undoubtedly why the forest is so often reflected there, with its lights and shadows, its mysteries and aromas, defining its enormous diversity and its role as a home and source of sustenance for countless plant, animal and human lives.
We invite you to send us stories, legends, myths, poems about the forest, the woods, the jungle, to let the people who know them and love them be the ones to define them.
We also want to remind you about the various other activities in our campaign for a true definition of forests, which you can find here: http://wrm.org.uy/forests.html
Because the rainforest is lung,
oxygen, teat,
we must defend the rainforest
The rainforest is sweet earth,
fresh water, planetary root,
inhabited vessel, plume of freedom,
loving hurricane still unknown,
and nest of birds with voice and vote.
The rainforest is not a joke, not a game.
The rainforest is not a mute river, nor a blind spear.
The rainforest is global hierarchy,
womb and seminal root.
The rainforest is eternal, germinal.
Brilliant ethnicity and mythical cosmogony.
We must defend the rainforest.
Translation of the poem by Carlos Villacorta Valles, a native of Moyobamba, San Martín region, Peru, director of the literary group Generación Caoba
