The man who planted trees

Today I would like to write about a book, that was recommended to me by someone. It’s about a story that had high influence on me, and, we could say, on my meaning of life. This is a blog about a story written by Jean Giono – The man who planted trees (original title: L'Homme qui plantait des arbres).

It’s been probably round year and half, if not two years, since I bought this book. As I said before, it was recommended to me by my friend, with words: “This book will be probably right for you,” when I begged her to write me a list of books that I should read. And it really was.

It took me a while to find it. There weren’t any books left in bookstores in the dozen places I checked, so I had to buy it over the internet. I don’t really like to buy books that way, because it’s too unpersonal if you haven’t had that book (or one of it's sibling-books) in hands before, but sometimes there is no other way.

The Slovene copy of the book is printed on special paper, and equipped with wood engravings by Peter Abram. 

When the book arrived, I was surprised by how thick it was. But luckily, I have learned already, that the quantity of the written is not always quality. And then I smelled it. I just love the smell of books, of their paper, and sometimes I even think that I can smell the letters in them. So when I smelled it, I was surprised again, it smelled so differently from the other books. Maybe because of the paper they used for the book.

The story is partly autobiographical, and it talks about a shepherd, who had unselfishly planted thousands of trees in the ruthless landscape in the French Alps.

I won’t talk about the meaning of the story, because I believe, that every story gives different wisdoms to different people (if you don’t have the time to read it, you can watch it below). For me, this story was inspiring, and it has woke up the calls in me, which I hadn’t heard in a long time. The calls, which made me become a gardener, but during the school time, and this whole world going so fast, I had forgotten about them.

So, I started planting my own trees. I started with Ginkgo biloba. I had collected seeds in autumn, in the city where my school was. I planted them in spring, on the day of the earth, 27. April 2010, and soon they sprouted.  I have them on  the balcony, where they are exposed to the sun and the wind, so that plants can be more resistant. I decided that I will give them to the people, I care about a lot, and are special for me. I have already given a few to some of them, and as they say, their ginkgos are growing nicely. This year I also planed gingko seeds. And because this is an international year of forests, I will plant them on the land we own, to form a little forest. 

Last year's, and this year's plant of Ginkgo biloba

I have already prepared seeds of a Dove tree – Davidia involucrate, of Monkey puzzle tree – Araucaria araucana, and I will probably some other tree seeds.

So, now if you would like, well actually I highly recommend you to watch this short movie 'The men who planted trees' by Jean Giono, and I hope it will touch you too, but still try to read the book.

Part 1/4:

 Part  2/4: 

Part 3/4: 

Part 4/4: 

So, read you next time!

Uroš