A Promise in Green

Irene's plot

Green Man, watercolor 2024

In a time when the world felt broken, when smoke dimmed the sun and waters ran dark, Irene tended her tiny plot in a garden in the city. Though many of her neighbors had given up, letting their plots turn to dust, she worked the soil with gnarled but determined fingers.

On that bitter winter evening, as she gathered the last of her herbs, she noticed a curious shadow among her withered plants. There, emerging from the frost-kissed earth, was a face formed of twisted vines and leaves - eyes green as spring itself, beard woven from roots and moss.

"They say the earth is dying," Irene whispered to the face in her garden. "They say we've gone too far."

The Green Man's lips, formed from curling ferns, smiled gently. His voice rustled like wind through ancient forests: "Look closer," he said. "See how the smallest seed holds a forest. How each fallen leaf feeds new life. The earth remembers every cycle, every season, every change. It has weathered greater storms than these."

As he spoke, tiny green shoots spiraled from his mouth, weaving themselves through the garden's bare soil. "Humans have forgotten that you are not separate from nature - you are nature itself, thinking and dreaming. The same force that turns seeds to trees flows in your veins."

Irene watched as life stirred beneath the frost, defiant and green. "What should we do then?" she asked.

"Do as you have done," he murmured, his form beginning to merge with the awakening earth. "Tend your garden. Save your seeds. Share your harvest. Trust in the wisdom of small things - the mycelia threading through soil, the dance of bee and flower, the patient work of earthworms. Even in the darkest season, life prepares for spring."

"Remember," his voice echoed as he faded into the lengthening shadows, "nature does not measure time as you do. What seems like an ending may be a beginning. The future grows from every choice, every seed planted with hope."

Irene stood in her garden as the first stars appeared overhead. Where the Green Man had been, a tiny seedling pushed through the soil, its leaves catching the starlight like drops of dew. She smiled, understanding at last that hope was not just a feeling, but an action - as natural and necessary as growth itself.

Irene wanted to share the wisdom imparted from the Green Man. The next morning, she began teaching the neighborhood children how to save seeds and her garden became a place where new stories could take root and grow.