The Tree of Life

Story

Hundreds and thousands of years ago, at the beginning of the world, there was very little for human beings to eat. There was no fruit, and people had to live off roots and berries, and the roots were often bitter, and the berries sour.

Then, deep in the rainforest, Agoutie found a most extraordinary tree, covered in fruit of all different kinds. Agoutie ate as much as he could. Every day he went into the forest, found the tree and ate and ate.

His brother Nakumynia noticed that Agoutie was getting healthier and demanded to know where he went every morning. Agoutie didn’t really want to share but he took his brother to the tree. Nakumynia said they must share the fruit with the rest of the village.

The next morning the whole village went to the tree and they ate and ate. Agoutie was afraid that the fruit would run out. However, as they ate, the wasps began to sting the children and their angry fathers chopped the tree down. 

Where the tree had been a great fountain of water spurted. The water kept coming until the villagers were driven up the mountain by the flood.

When the water went down the villagers went back to the forest but instead of one tree bearing all the fruit, they found lots of trees each growing a different kind of fruit.

It seemed that during the flood all the seeds from the tree of life had been carried into the forest and each one had planted itself and became a fruit tree. 

And that is how fruit came into the world.

Why we chose it

An origin story that asks us to respect nature.