Cry Amazon
In the history of human experience, I have encountered four kinds of kindness that you cannot find in textbooks or anybody wants to discuss openly.
The first kind of kindness is human. The second is the animal. The third is the plant and finally, the fourth is the environment.
In my 64 years of existence, I find human kindness rare. This kind of kindness is when humans relate to each other and offer kindness.
The other kindness in humans is when they love animals. Sometimes, I see that humans are kinder to animals than to their own kind. This seems oddly unnatural as I believed that humans should be more kind to themselves first than to animals.
In plant-kindness, I see many examples when humans love plants and grow them like in a garden. There appear to be two kinds of human kindness when it comes to plants. Gardening is the first type and commercial farming is the second. The kindness associated with commercial farming allows the farmer to live off his land by selling his produce.
Finally, the last type of human kindness is about the environment. This concerns also the Cosmos and so we have astronauts who travel in outer space in order to explore other planets. The astronauts are trained to be kind because if they discover some materials from another planet, they should claim it for the use of earthlings. But we do not know whether this is the true test of their kindness on a space mission until the day comes when a claim is made.
One of the most recent incidences of kindness is found in the Amazon forest in Brazil. In this plant kindness, humans have engineered a way to support their farming activities thus allowing the land to grow abundantly. However, as we have now realised, sometimes farmers have tended to exploit their land resource such as trees to their disadvantage. The commercialisation of trees such as land clearing for corporations has also caused many forests to disappear.
Today’s installation is about the loss of kindness when we remove trees from their natural habitats. The series covers two boxes, one large and one small. It is a representation of corruption that degrades the natural environment where trees live; once the trees are gone, every other commercial instinct to develop the land is activated with the feature being that the trees shall never return.
The first box represents a green environment where trees live happily in harmony with nature.
The second box represents a darkened and burnt environment, and even though the trend is small, in the Amazon where it is considered the lungs of the world’s forest, a decimation of the trees shall have a lasting and permanent impact on environment, habitat and society.
The two boxes when placed individually can be studied on their own merits. When placed together, side by side, they provide a contrast of the imminent picture we are seeing now: the wholesale destruction of forests for commercial gains. However, when the boxes are placed on top of each other, the true relevance of and scale of destruction can be seen. For example, to be able to put the small box on the big box, the big box needs to be overturned. This means that the natural growth of the trees is disrupted, as can be seen by the green markers which are now opposite in direction as if hanging from the air. No tree can live in the air as all trees and living things including us, require to be rooted in the ground so we can absorb moisture and water to stay alive.
We can analyse ourselves the topic of kindness when we see the position of the boxes. If we are not kind to the trees, we shall always find a way to burn the trees at the cost of other young trees or emerging trees or plantings; thus, the small box shall always be at the top, the result or endgame of burning. However, if we are mindful of our actions and take responsibility as guardians of the forest, we should always take care and precaution to save burning, therefore, the small box should be placed inside the big box because of our foresight and insight of the trees’ contribution and significance to our existence. We protect our environment by first protecting the trees that make the environment sustainable for our continued existence and comfort.
To live with trees in harmony so both trees and humans can co-exist for the benefit of society is only the first goal in our responsibility as guardians of the forest. The second goal is how to sustain the forest so that we shall never lose another tree again for the sake of progress. We cannot progress materially when trees are spiritual living things that balance our own spirituality-comfort.
There is a popular saying that when it comes to progress, we sacrifice kindness easily: Everybody plays the fool as if there is no exception to the rule.
We hate to see trees’ tears falling from the sky when trees’ roots should anchor our pathways of kindness to our common shared heritage of benevolence toward nature’s gifts.
If you like a personal narrative behind each of the boxes’ creation, please visit https://benniledesignerbox.com
