‘The Man Who Planted Trees’ by Jean Giono
“The Man Who Planted Trees” by Jean Giono is a fable told simply of a single man (Elzeard Bouffier) who planted and nourished a forest of oak and birch trees with hope and determination. Though only three hundred-fifty pages, this beautiful tale shows the power of one man’s ability to succeed at his task when the land is bone dry in the beginning.
Later streams, rivers, and fountains of water help the trees thrive. The man returns every year and plants thousands of acorns. When drafted for the first World War, he fights at Verdun and sees men die. He decides this is not a good way to solve the earth’s problems. The author becomes a pacifist. The trees give him hope that man will overcome the urge to fight.
When government officials ask whose land he is planting, Bouffier says he doesn’t know. Perhaps it is the acorn’s land? In the next war, gasoline-driven autos endanger the trees because wood is needed to burn the generator. Cutting wood was financially stupid, and this was abandoned. Boluffier ignored this war as well.
When the young narrator of this tale returns in 1945, he does not recognize the place. He needs a city sign to know his universe. It is indeed where he originally saw arid land and abandoned huts. Now he hears water flowing and sees stone houses and people working at clearing the ruins. He sees neat farms, groves of maples, mint, and, best of all, men and women, boys and girls laughing and picnicking. All the result of the effort of a single man, Elzeard Bouffier.
Find this delightful fable that brought the author fame but no fortune on the new fiction shelf of your local library. The wood engravings by Michael McCurdy will enchant you, too, and inspire you to plant your own garden of trees and words.