Version 2.0
Here I am this morning, sitting on my office chair, looking at the gleaming leaves of a thin tree growing outside my window, covering my view of Makiling with a green translucent mask.
I am uncertain whether it is even appropriate to call this a “tree.” Its kind just grows whenever the rain comes. We’ve had lots of rain in the past few days and boy do these “trees” grow fast! The owner of the piece of land outside my window had them cut a few months ago. Now they’re back with vengeance, blocking my once picturesque view of the mountain.
I am in a mild trance looking at the green light when all of a sudden, I see a bubuli crawling around the branches of the tree. At first, the sun skink seems to be going down this one thin branch. But then it goes back up the same branch, as if it realizes that it is going the wrong way. Before it even reaches the tip of the branch, which is too small to carry its weight, the bubuli relocates into a leaf stem. The leaves of this tree are large, but they are less thick than the already thin branch that holds the bubuli. And yet, it feels like the creature is so sure that the leaf stem will be able to carry its weight. It proceeds without any hesitation or fear. Talk about lizard brain!
From the leaf stem, it is only a few seconds before the bubuli reaches the large leaf, where there is no stem to support it. Naturally, its weight pulls the lighter leaf, which starts to bend down. At the exact moment when the bubuli would have fallen from the leaf, the animal jumps acrobatically to where it is really going—the sturdier trunk of another tree. It crawls down fast before I can even blink my eyes.
Original version
I am sitting on my office chair, looking at the gleaming green leaves that block my view of Makiling. All of a sudden, I see a bubuli crawling around the branches of a thin tree that was growing just outside the window of my office. I am not sure whether it is even right to call this a tree. Its kind just grows whenever the rain comes. We’ve had a lot of rain in the past few days and boy do these “trees” grow fast! The owner of the piece of land outside my window had these cut a few months ago. Now they’e back with vengeance, blocking my once clear view of the mountain’s summit.
At first, the bubuli seems to be going down this one thin branch. Suddenly, it went back up the same branch as if it realized that it was going the wrong way. Before it even reaches the tip of the branch, which was seems too small to carry the lizard’s weight, the bubuli reversed into a leaf stem. The leaves of this tree are larger than most trees. But they are less thick than the already thin branch that holds the bubuli. And yet it felt like the creature was so sure that the leaf stem will be able to carry its weight. It proceeded without any hesitation or fear—talk about lizard brain!
From the leaf stem, it was only a few seconds before the bubuli reached the large leaf and no stem supports it! Naturally, its weight pulled the lighter leaf, which started to bend down. At the exact moment when the bubuli seems to fall from the leaf, the animal jumped acrobatically to where it was really going—to the sturdier trunk of another tree. It crawled down fast before I can even blink my eyes again.
I was rewarded with a penny—as Annie Dillard so skilfully described in her book. It’s not very often that I see something at the back of my office and so when I do, I know I really need to see it. Have I seen other things while looking out of this office window? The sunset, of course. One time, I also watched the old man patiently harvest the dragon fruits that crawled up a tall palm tree, which he cut eventually. And there was also the Christmas eve morning when the muslims were chanting and it was so clear, the contrast.