There Came a Camel

The camel came and went in the dessert, coming and going on the sand. The camel ate sand and drank sand and breathed sand and knew nothing but sand. The camel came and went on the great sand mountains and across the great sand plains. The camel came and went.

Once upon a day the camel walked across the sand, the sun beat down upon the sand, and the breeze put the sand into new places, such that, every year, the sand was different sand and not one part of the sand could be said to be the same as another part of the sand. Until, this day, the camel came around a great heap of sand, by a sand valley, and saw three things, that were not sand, standing there.

The three things were made by a tall piece standing straight up with some small pieces, not the colour of sand, grouped around the top.

The camel, who had assumed that all the world was made of sand, walked close to observe the three things. The camel sniffed and licked and bit one of the three things.

Stop it, said the thing, I am a Tree, and you may not eat my trunk, nor bark, or I shall pass from this dessert and be no more.

I am a camel that comes and goes in the dessert, said the camel, I eat sand and drink sand and breath sand all the days. Now that I have found something that is not sand, I have a mind to eat it. Give me a good reason why I should not eat you.

Well, said the tree, I am a resource that cannot be replaced. It takes me many years to grow tall, and therefore you can only eat me once. If you follow my advice, you may occasionally, and by this, I mean maybe once a month or so, eat some of my leaves, (leaves are the little dangly things at the top), which I grow all the time and therefore you and I will both be able to co-exist.

The camel looked at the dangly things at the top of the tree and delicately nipped one off with his prehensile lips and ate it. Delicious, said the camel, I can see that we are going to get along just fine.

Now that’s more like it, said the Elders of Az to the Blue Knight when he spoke his latest tale. You’ve got respect for trees, said one. I think you’ll find its respect for the entire natural world that we’re talking about here, said another. You’ve got ideas around conservation and resource management, said a third, not to mention a healthy vegetarian diet from sustainable sources.

The Blue Knight felt pleased, but felt, on refection, that the Elders of Az might be overestimating the depth of the content in his tale.