Publisher's Synopsis
I grew up in a tropical country where we were surrounded by trees. Trees were revered in their own way. Trees provided firewood, building materials in form of timber, and some trees were used for medicine. Growing in such an environment was a blessing. Because of the reverence to trees, there were stories told about them. One such a story was that tress could walk around during the night communicating with each other. This was reinforced by the fact that if you were outside during the night and with moonlight, shadows could be cast from the trees and these shadows could appear to be moving or formed different patterns when viewed from a distance.Now, these stories might seem superfluous, but recently I watched a documentary that talked about walking trees. This documentary ignited my curiosity about walking trees during my youth. I searched the Internet and came across a story about walking trees in Central America. And the story goes like this. In the rainforests of Costa Rica, there is an unusual type of tree known as a "walking tree." This tree is strange-looking. At the foot of the tree is a tangle of roots, rising about a meter above the ground. When observed from the sides, it looks as if someone heaved the tree straight up out of the ground, leaving about a meter of its roots bare above ground level. According to rainforest inhabitants, the walking tree presumably changes its location over time, albeit slowly. This moving tree phenomenon is astounding. It is believed that the roots act as a type of appraisal system, searching for fertile soil for the tree. If there is good soil on one side of the tree, the roots on that side dig in deeply and hold firmly. If the soil on the other side is not as good, the roots on that side remain shallow and weak. As the roots on the better side become stronger and deeper, the whole tree systematically shifts toward the better side, pulled by the strong roots in that direction. As this process continues, new roots grow around the new setting, some of them extending even further out. If the roots find even better soil there, the whole tree will, over time, move even more to the better side. Or, if there is better soil in a different position, the tree will slowly shift to that side. Strange. Right? Stay with me and I will walk you through the mind of a tree.
