The seed wakes. Moisture seeps through every pore and she swells in delight at the life giving gift. Slowly she stretches her legs down through the warm, rich earth; sipping at the offered moisture and nutrition. Instinctively knowing where she needs to be, her neck unfolds upwards and grows away from the pull of the Earth. She grows and feeds, pushing ever upward and outward. Her roots hit bedrock and feel their way outwards, searching for weaknesses or cracks into which they can continue their quest for water and nutients. Weakening as her stored food supply diminishes, she pushes ever more desperately.

Finally, something cracks above her head, she pushes harder and she experiences something she has never felt before in all her short life – freedom. She twists and extends, stretching her foetal seed leaves. Inflated and green, they start to fill her veins with sugars, the life blood her seed case could not provide. The two dicotyledinous seed leaves, having done their work, wither and fall. Basking in warmth and the dappled light of the forest floor, the seed feels her finest new leaves form and grow.

Time passes and her stem toughens and browns. Her trunk sends moisture racing upwards to her canopy of leaves. The days lengthen then shorten, a cycle of warmth and cold, growth and consolidation. Her leaves form, green and grow. Having provided sustainance in the good days the gathered waste in each leaf now turns them scarlet. Finally they wither and fall to the forest floor. The years pass by in a blur for the seed.

Finally she has grown to her mightiest – her roots no longer able to extend through the rocky bowl that feeds and systains her. How strong she feels… how powerful! Her very heart and soul shouts to the canopy ”Bring it on world!”

The children run through the forest, screaming their delight to be free of school for the summer. Chloe, a budding botanist, falls to her knees and coos and bills at the something she has just discovered. Piqued, her friend runs over to see what it is that has interrupted their games.

“Look Becky! Its a baby tree! How beautiful is that! See her tiny leaves? That’s because of a thing called Bonsai… “

”Lovely… now can we get on and play?”

Chloe stands up, smiles, and firmly plants a hand on Becky and runs off into the trees.

“You’re it! You’re it!” She screams…

Becky, surprised, watched her friend rush off. About to dash off after Chloe, a thought reached into her mind and she paused. Standing over the miniature tree, her boot raised…..

“Bonsai this, tree!”