One life, one forest

Hòa had an unusual hobby: planting trees. Since childhood he had often picked up seeds, sown them into seedlings and then gone looking for empty land to plant them. Land was still cheap then, and there was plenty of waste land. Many classmates asked for Hòa's seedlings to plant around their houses. In his spare time Hòa would take saplings to plant on the barren hill. By the time he finished secondary school, the area around his hamlet was lush and cool with greenery. The hill on the far side of the fields was green with trees too.

Hòa also inspired his friends to plant trees and climbing vines everywhere. They would go from house to house offering to plant trees for people. At first people were surprised; afterwards everyone was delighted and thanked them.

Hòa took the university entrance exam for forestry, true to his passion. Then he went to work as a forest ranger protecting the forest. Besides protecting the forest, he also looked for more land to plant trees on, to enlarge the forested area. Naturally, a man who loved forests like this was a thorn in the side of illegal loggers. They had no way of buying him off to turn a blind eye while they plundered the forest and stole timber.

One day he discovered that trees were being stolen from the forest. He phoned his station chief and then ran into the forest alone with a gun to stop the loggers. To his surprise, the loggers were many, fully armed, and surrounded him and fought back, determined to kill Hòa. Gunfire rang through the whole forest. Hòa ran out of ammunition and was driven deep into the old forest with no way out. He evaded their search, climbed up to a cave high above and hid inside. They surrounded every approach, waiting to kill him the moment he showed his face.

The news that Hòa had been missing in the forest for nearly a week worried his office and his family. The provincial military command sent soldiers to search, but they met only loggers pretending to be harmless people gathering dry firewood.
Hòa's father had no choice but to go and consult a fortune-teller, a friend of his who specialised in casting hexagrams of the Book of Changes. The friend cast the hexagram, read the lines and the changing lines, and then interpreted:

• This man corresponds to the hexagram Earth over Thunder, Return. In a place of certain death there is still a way to live. This man has always created life for heaven and earth by planting trees, so a painful death is impossible for him. He has created life for trees, birds and beasts, so he cannot suffer hunger and hardship. He has created life for the world, so his later years will be good in every way.
  Hòa's father felt a little hope for his son.

Sure enough, the hexagram proved true. Hòa hid in the cave with nothing to eat or drink, hungry and thirsty; looking down, he saw the shadows of the loggers hunting for him and did not dare to come out. His phone had fallen out as he fled. He had no choice but to grope deeper into the cave to see whether there was anything else useful. Strangely, the cave was narrow and he could enter only by crawling, but there was no place to stop. Hòa kept prodding with his gun to check for snakes and crawled on. He crawled and crawled until he saw light shining down from high above onto a wide, expanding cavern with a cool, clear pool. The scene was as beautiful as a fairy tale. Recklessly, Hòa scooped up the water and drank, not knowing whether it was poisonous. He managed to take a few birds' eggs, cracked them and ate them raw to ease his hunger. The birds had nested in this hollow cave through the large opening above; it was wonderful. Perhaps these birds ate snakes, for he saw none.
Hòa was exhausted, lay down with his head on a piece of dry wood and fell asleep. When he heard the birds calling he woke in the middle of the night and sat with his back against the wall, waiting for dawn. He fell asleep again. Hòa was so enchanted by the beauty that he lingered and did not want to climb out and leave. For several days he stayed there, drinking the clear water of the pool and eating birds' eggs. The birds were probably angry.
After a few days enjoying the wondrous nature, Hòa waited until the light shone into the hollow cave again and then looked for a way to climb to the opening above. Holding on to vines, gripping branches and following the rock wall, he climbed up to the opening, came out of the cave, and looked in amazement at the forest that he and his comrades had patrolled many times on this hill without ever discovering that below lay a beautiful cavern. But never mind: why reveal it? If people appeared there, they would spoil the fairyland.
Hòa made a very long detour to avoid the loggers and found his way back to his office. A special task force was set up. The loggers were all arrested. Their gravest crimes were using illegal weapons and resisting officials on duty. The investigators also arrested two forest rangers whom the loggers had long ago bribed.

After this case Hòa was promoted and went to work at the provincial branch office. His superior's thinking was also that Hòa might face revenge from them if he stayed there. Hòa did his forest-ranger duties at the branch office while continuing to clear land and plant forest trees. Later he became very wealthy, with a huge house.
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Planting trees adds life to heaven and earth, so one never falls into a dead end and dies a miserable death. Where there are forests, there is shelter for birds and wild animals, so one is bound to have a proper home. There are so many benefits from forests that those who often plant trees will receive many noble rewards of merit later on.
Let us encourage one another to plant many, many trees to preserve life on our Earth.