. Deep within the forest there lives the tallest of all trees. They stretch their thick branches full of leaves up into the blue skies and give us oxygen to breathe. Their trunks are very wide and many of these beautiful giants have been in the fore st for hundreds of years.
These mighty trees are known as Mafomeira (known as Lapuna in Spanish) and there are many stories that claim the Mafomeira possess a spirit that protects the forest. One such story was told by an old man whose name was Adao.
One day, a very long time ago, Adao and his two young friends decided that they would earn their money by cutting down trees in the forest and selling the lumber to local farmers and builders. The three friends built a small cabin in the forest and set out one morning to cut down their first tree. One tree provided enough lumber for the three men to make an honest living for the whole month. The farmers were happy and so were the builders. And for every tree they chopped down the three friends planted two baby samplings that would one day grow into mighty Mafomeira. ‘This is how we keep the forest healthy and happy,’ Adao would say with a smile each time he planted a sapling in the earth. ‘And if we take care of the forest then the forest will take care of us.’
Adao and his friends were happy in the forest. They loved their simple cabin and they enjoyed their labours. They only ever cut down one Mafomeira tree each month and they always made sure to plant the baby samplings in order to show respect for the forest. But then, almost without Adao noticing, things started to change.
Adao’s friends began to look at the trees in a different way. One asked, ‘Why is it that we only cut a single tree each month when we could be cutting many more?’
‘We could earn ourselves a great deal of money if we cut down more trees,’ said the oth