The monkey, the tree and the turtle

a fable by Luis Henrique Sant'Anna*

teacher at the Waldorf Flor do Ipê School, in Três Corações MG

Drawing by Luis Henrique Sant'Anna

Once upon a time there was a tree, which grew up on top of a hill. And it grew quickly, very quickly and opened up a big canopy. Because it grew so fast, with such a large canopy, no other tree could grow close to it. She was alone at the top of the hill.

It was a very big tree that lived alone, right on top of the hill.

One day a little monkey passed by. A little monkey, not those little monkeys that live in packs. It was a little bigger: a Capuchin Monkey, who was also alone. He came walking like that, head down, with an air of lost in life… in fact, he was sad.

Monkey decided to separate from the gang because he was always fighting with everyone.

When he saw the tree he thought:
But what a beautiful tree! What a big tree…and it looks like no one lives here. I might as well live in that tree… Wow! What a good idea! She looks like a mansion. He climbed the tree to take a closer look: “Look, how many rooms, how many branches. The view is a beauty. And it still bears fruit. Let's see if it's good… Hmm! Delicious".

The fruit of the tree was sweet and had a hard core. Just as the little monkey was almost finished eating, he heard a noise in the bush. He quickly hid and saw another animal approaching. It was a tapir.
- Which! – thought the little monkey – so this tapir thinks he can live in my house? But no way.

He took the pit of the fruit, took aim and hit the tapir hard in the snout. He remained hidden and began to shout in a strong and threatening voice:
— Get out of here you ugly tapir… get out of here or I'll catch you.

The tapir looked for whoever was screaming at her, didn't see anyone, got scared and ran away. The little monkey laughed and liked the idea. He began to gather sticks, stones and the fruit pits from the tree. He kept everything in a hollow in the trunk.

Whenever someone appeared, the little monkey would hide, start screaming and throw things. He wouldn't let anyone near the tree.
And the place ended up getting a reputation for being haunted by the surroundings.

The monkey was increasingly lonely and grumpy. I had no friends, I didn't play with anyone. He only had fun when he scared others and that was getting harder and harder to do. No one else went there.

Until one day he saw a very strange thing:
— Wow, what kind of weird thing is that?… It looks like a stone.
He took a good look and saw that the stone was moving towards the tree.
— What the hell… stone doesn't move!
He went down to the lowest branch to get a better look. Guess what it was?… That's right, a turtle.

The monkey got a hell of a rage! First, because someone was under his tree, second, because he had been tricked.
“Oh, but she'll see. He took sticks, seeds, stones, threw everything he had at the turtle… he cursed, made noise, screamed until he couldn't anymore. Do you know what the turtle did?
Anything.
She stuck her head inside her shell and kept quiet until the monkey got tired. When he stopped, she stuck her head out and looked around. The monkey was so tired that he fell asleep and snored with his mouth open. The Turtle smiled and liked the place. She thought the shade of the tree was good, the fruit was delicious, there was water nearby… she decided to live there too.

The little monkey ended up getting used to the turtle always around. He saw that it was harmless, couldn't climb the tree, and made almost no noise. Even so, whenever he had nothing to do, he threw things at her trying to hit her in the head.
The tortoise also got used to the monkey.

Time passed, and a very dry season came, which that year was terrible. One, two, three, four months without a single drop of water falling. The animals were in serious trouble, they all went hungry and it was difficult to find water to drink, until the weather changed. But before the first rain a terrible gale ravaged the forest. The wind howled through the woods. The little monkey was scared to death, grabbed the tree with all his strength and closed his eyes.

The tortoise got into its shell and was very quiet.

The tree, as it was alone at the top of the hill, received the full blows of the wind, which managed to uproot it, root and all. The desperate monkey fell with the tree, hit his head and passed out. Then it started to rain, a summer storm. The little monkey was passed out until the rain stopped. Woke up to the turtle saying:
— Wake up, monkey! Wake up quickly! Soon it gets dark and the beasts arrive: the jaguar, the wolf, the ocelot. If they catch you like that, they eat you alive.

The monkey got up terrified, ran away and went to hide there in the forest. He found a safe corner just as it was getting dark. Before going to sleep, he thought:

“That turtle was nice to me. Saved my life. He could have walked away and left me passed out. If it were me, I might as well run away and not warn anyone.”

The other day, he went to look for the turtle, apologized awkwardly and thanked him. They started talking and had a lot of fun.
Finally the monkey thought: today I found a friend and it was really cool, but what if I get even more friends?

And then he started to make a lot of friendships in the forest: he became friends with the other monkeys, the coatis and even with the porcupine he got along, despite never being able to give him a hug.

Your life just got happier. He was always happy because he could play with a lot of people and he wasn't that lonely, grumpy, grumpy monkey anymore. The tortoise was also happy and continued to live near him.

And tree? The tree, when it fell, dropped all the seeds that the monkey had saved. And from them many little trees were born that grew on the top of the hill. And life was renewed through the forest.

***