Author, Melina Sempill Watts brings us her enchanting environmental novel, Tree, published in 2016 by Change the World Books.
Watts’ story captures the personified soul of a California Oak, following its 229 years from small acorn to mighty oak. The charm of the book is the construct that Tree is a thinking, feeling, talking entity, capable of a variety of emotions as ‘e’ grows and evolves. The letter ‘e’ is used to refer to Tree because ‘e’ is neither a he or she but just ‘e-self’.
Readers naturally fall into exuberantly following Tree’s experience in the first gentle discovery of the warmth of sun and the cover of night for the first time. Tree takes root in Topanga after being dropped as an acorn by a bird and Watts describes the early moment of growth in almost majestic poetry:
“Tree, with each passing moment, quivered in the first burst of light it had ever seen/felt/smelt/known. Like all trees and fully sentient plants, tree experienced all the sensations that animals know in a simultaneous burst coming in at tree’s core, from every exposed cell in tree’s outside, top, bottom, sides, roots, tree experienced the full extent of being alive in one brilliant moment and then shrank for an instant. It was nearly too much. But tree found inside a hunger for this hot light, for this dusty air, for the sky, that drove tree to reach up and up.”
Tree grows. Tree makes friends. Tree’s first friend is a small blade of grass, named Univervia and she is a free and happy nature spirit. They connect through their roots and their shared love of being growing things. Soon an amazing friendship, a bonding develops, something that enables Tree to feel love and connection. Tree’s affection for that first friend is undying and something sacred.
When asked how she came to write the book, Watts says, “I had the experience of having the whole of the story pop up in my head in a wild rush of narrative—instantaneously. I felt the characters of Tree and Univervia as if they were my closest friends, or historical figures whom I had been researching for a decade.”
Watts attended Topanga Elementary School, where she began to create stories and share them with friends. She admired the free spirit of the Canyon and came to know the cycles of the seasons in Southern California that play a big part in Tree’s story.
Tree must suffer through drought and floods and the dreaded season of fire. These challenges are suspenseful and harrowing. Especially concerning, as we know so well today, is the fate of Topanga grass during late summer when rain has been scarce. Dear Univervia is grass. Will she make it? Or will this be Tree’s first sad parting?
Watt’s authentic love and respect for the environment is evident throughout the novel. She knows the plants, terrain and animals native to the land and those that, over centuries, were brought in with early explorers and settlers: horses, cattle, dogs and mustard seeds. Tree sees all, knows and cares for the native Chumash and is intrigued by the new, mounted Spanish.
Over the years many people come into Tree’s sphere. Some are sensitive enough to come to love Tree, whispering their secrets and hopes and hugging Tree’s mighty trunk. Tree witnesses the beginning of human life and the loss. One broken-hearted son buried his mother under Tree, knowing she should lie peacefully in that hallowed ground near Tree’s roots. In this heartfelt scene, the son speaks to Tree: “I am not sure you can hear me or understand me, but this is my mother. She said she was your friend. Please take care of her.” Of course, Tree does.
Time passes as more and more people come. Houses are built, roads laid down and an invasive plant, arundo donax, affects the balance of the ecosystem. A family builds a home near Tree and the landscape changes. Their son is lonely, troubled and neglected. Fortunately, it does not take long for him to be attracted to Tree and the boy and the oak begin a cosmic connection that helps the boy grow and heal.
Alas, a California Oak can only live so long. But there is some core of Tree, some essence, something more, beyond bark and branches, that will always be. As Tree bids good-bye to the boy, e communicates what really matters to all life and is joyful to have received a child’s love.
What a treasure this book is! It is a gift to have read and been left with the feeling of having made the acquaintance of a special entity who made the world better by being a steadfast part of it.
Thanks to Melina Sempill Watts for following her heart, intuition, and passion to bring us Tree.
SAVE THE DATES: Watts will be speaking at a book signing for “Tree” at Malibu High School on December 7; at King Gilette Ranch on Dec. 9; 10 a.m.-12:30 p.m., and the Zen Center of Los Angeles on Dec. 10, 10:20-noon.
