The Legend of the Upside-down Tree
A very, very long time ago, say some African legends, the
first baobab sprouted beside a small lake. As it grew taller and looked about
it spied other trees, noting their colorful flowers, straight and handsome
trunks, and large leaves. Then one day the wind died away leaving the water
smooth as a mirror, and the tree finally got to see itself. The reflected image
shocked it to its root hairs. Its own flowers lacked bright color, its leaves
were tiny, it was grossly fat, and its bark resembled the wrinkled hide of an
old elephant.
In a strongly worded invocation1
to the creator, the baobab complained about the bad deal it’d been given. This impertinence2 had no effect:
following a hasty reconsideration, the deity felt fully satisfied. Relishing3 the fact that
some organisms were purposefully less than perfect, the creator demanded to
know whether the baobab found the hippopotamus beautiful, or the hyena’s cry
pleasant-and then retired in a huff behind the clouds. But back on earth the
barrel-chested whiner4 neither
stopped peering at its reflection nor raising its voice in protest. Finally, an
exasperated creator returned from the sky, seized the ingrate5 by the trunk, yanked6 it from the ground, turned it over, and
replanted it upside down. And from that day since, the baobab has been unable
to see its reflection or make complaint; for thousands of years it has worked
strictly in silence, paying off its ancient transgression7 by doing good deeds for people. All
across the African continent some variation on this story is told to explain
why this species is so unusual and yet so helpful. Taken with grateful
acknowledgement from: http://www.baobabppc.org.za
Vocabulary
Notes: Read the text and guess the meaning of the words below.
1.
Invocation
-
2.
Impertinence
3.
Relish
4.
Whine
5.
Ingrate
6.
Yank
7.
Transgression
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