Have you planted a tree? TRUE TEST OF MANHOOD: HAVE A SON, PLANT A TREE

By Manny Piñol

Great American novelist Ernest Hemingway was believed to have said once that to be a man, one has to “fight a bull, write a novel, father a son and plant a tree.”

That definitely was a chauvinist line but admittedly, except for fighting the bull, I believe that many of us could do the other three.

Of the three, however, it is tree planting which is the easiest to do.

A man could only father so many sons, write so many books but definitely he could plant thousands of trees.

I have always found joy in planting trees and seeing them grow. I planted trees to mark special moments in my life, birthdays, political victories and births in the family.

I also planted trees because I saw them as my hope to decently raise a family.

In my farm in Barangay Paco, I have planted hundreds of trees – mahogany, lanzones, macopas, avocados, mangos, mangosteens, guyabanos, santol, rubber, and now I am germinating Indian Moringas.

My children have planted their own trees in the farm too and everytime I am with them in the farm, I ask them to plant a tree.

At the back of our ancestral home in Nueva Vida, M’lang, North Cotabato is a giant mango tree which I planted when I was a young boy.

Today, my children and my nephews and nieces would play under its shade during family gatherings.

I feel a profound sense of pride whenever I see the trees I planted bear fruits and provide shade and comfort.

Last Saturday, at the foot of the country’s highest peak, Mt. Apo, I proudly pointed out to my son, Bernhart Immanuel, who made his first climb, and my daughter, Josa Bernadette who was on her third journey to the mountain, the two Red Cedar trees, locally known as Tinikaran, which I planted in my first climb in 1999.

The trees are now 15 years old and they looked sturdy and healthy.

They are almost of the same age as the thousands of other Tinikaran trees planted in over 500 hectares of reforestation area at the foot of Mt. Apo which was managed by the PNOC-EDC which operates a geothermal power plant in Kidapawan City.

Inspired by the sight of the healthy trees, I asked my daughter and son to plant three more seedlings beside the ones I planted in 1999.

I asked my friend, former PNOC security chief Boy Sernal, to watch over the seedlings and make sure that they will grow.

Years from now, I would like Josa and Imman to stand and have their pictures taken beside their trees.

I maybe gone when that time comes but my children could always point out to the two old Tinikaran trees as their Papa’s trees.