Jimmy Han, G9, RDF International School

We have expanded our city to fill much of our world, but there was this huge tree right in the middle of our land full of metal, concrete buildings. It has been there for no lasting memory could remember, even our best scientists shook their heads when they were asked to give an exact number.

Nobody knows for sure how it got there in the middle of our city, and nobody knows why the government has not cut it down for more space for more skyscrapers in response to ever rising populations and housing prices.

But our oldest minds sometimes recall a time when that area was full of little two-storey houses, a type of home which nobody now dares to have in order to “save space.”

That tree was there, just as big, just as strong. Its branches made home to countless birds and animals, its shade saved many from the summer sun.

When the government cleared the area out to build skyscrapers, they found that tree was too big to cut down with their then primitive technologies.

That was our only explanation answering few questions.

That tree was the one and only in our city-world, and we would look up at it in awe while on the ground walking, buying things, and working out. But no matter where we were, that tree seemed to call out to us like a mother calling for a child to come into her arms. That call would penetrate the thick concrete walls and pull us willingly to her.

Whenever we came to her, we would sit on her great roots, and leaned on her massive trunk and all stress would ease out. We were refreshed, enlightened, our tiredness soothing out under the shade of green.

Birds, an ever-so-rare sight, could only be found on that tree. Our buildings were so sleek and shiny that no birds would build their homes there, so that tree was the only place left for them to go. Birdsongs filled the morning air in areas surrounding that tree, gently waking people up from dreams. Gently, ever so gently, nudging a sleeping person, softly reminding them they need to wake. People living near that tree would always seem refreshed in the morning, in comparison with people living outside the radius of that tree, being woken up by alarm clocks and mechanical noises of their devices.

The world’s population increased again, so they decided to build more skyscrapers. Having little land to do so, they turned their eyes on that tree.

That tree was absolutely humongous; its roots would have made space for a massive skyscraper with heights unheard of before. Its branches topped some the highest of our buildings, sheltering them from the sun with shades of green.

These shades have now disappeared at the wake of heavy machinery.