The Little Pernambuco Treestory by Robert Ray

music byMark Thome

illustrations byK-12 graders

Little Pereira was a young pernambuco tree growing in a great forest on the Brazilian coast.

Life was good for Pereira. He had all the things he needed and plenty of company from the other pernambuco trees.

Pereira was always happy to be with his family of pernambuco trees. But, today, something was just not right for him.

“It’s just not fair!” Pereira thought.

“The elders can just drink the water from the clouds.”

He only got what they let trickle down their trunks or their leaves.

“It’s just not fair!” Pereira thought.

If he was big, he too could drink from the clouds.

If he was big, the sun would warm his leaves and branches.

The only sun he got was when an elder moved their branches to let just a little beam of sunshine come down to the forest floor.

“It’s just not fair!” Pereira thought.

If he was big, he would bask in the warm Brazilian sun all day long.

And what about the wind? The elder’s branches were always moving to and fro with the caressing gusts.

He would let the caressing wind tickle his leaves and mas-sage his branches.

“It just isn’t fair that I can’t have all that the elders have.”

The years went by and little Pereira grew taller and taller until one day he pushed up through the top of the forest canopy.

Oh, how glorious it was!

He could see the whole world from here.

And, oh, the wind! It felt so good on his outstretched branches.

Pereira had waited so long.

As Pereira was enjoying being so high up in the big blue sky, he looked across the canyon to an empty hillside.

Then he noticed a little pernambuco tree – all by itself.

Look, little pernambuco tree…

…here comes a cloud and you can drink as much rain from it as you want.

Pereira watched as the rain fell from the cloud.

So much rain fell that it formed puddles that turned into rivers that rushed dirt down the hillside.

The little pernambuco tree stood strong against the rushing water as it pulled the soil from its roots.

Soon the cloud moved on. The rain stopped and the water slowed down until the earth drank it all up.

“The sun will be good for you little pernambuco tree. It will warm you after all that rain.” Pereira thought.

The sun did warm the little pernambuco tree, but soon its rays go so strong that the leaves began to dry out and wilt.

Then the wind began to blow. It blew so hard that the lit-tle pernambuco fell over sideways with its roots exposed to the hot sun.

“It’s not fair!” Pereira thought.

Things changed for Pereira.

From that day on, Pereira made sure the little trees got just what they needed so they could grow into an elder like him.

The End.