Old Ms. Green Leaves

By Queen WordSmith (Cheryl Norris Sanders)

Once lived a beautiful old Mulberry tree. The children named the tree Old Ms. Green Leaves, because their parents told stories of climbing her when they were kids.  Ms. Green Leaves’ branches hung low and her leaves were a beautiful shade of green. She had lived in the city for many generations.  As the years went on and she grew older, she noticed that the air was getting very dirty from all the cars on the streets and more smoke was coming from the factories.  It was getting harder and harder for her to breathe.  The children were not coming to sit beneath her branches like before because many of them suffered with allergies and asthma.

Old Ms. Green Leaves missed the children climbing her branches and telling stories beneath her leaves.  As she grew sadder and sadder she thought of ways to bring the children back to play beneath her branches.

One day Ms. Green Leaves was so sad that her branches dropped and her leaves curled up.  One day she thought, I look so much like a broom that I can go and sweep the city clean.  I will use my low branches to sweep the rivers clean and my high branches to sweep the air free of smoke and gases.  I can start right here where I live.  She began to feel happy as she decided which streets to sweep first and which neighborhoods needed air cleaned the most.

 Many of the children were amazed as they left their houses for school that morning.  Old Ms. Green Leaves was cleaning their streets!  Many kids asked mommies and daddies if they could help Ms. Green Leaves clean the neighborhood instead of going to school that day.

First she swept one street with her low branches and then she waved them and cleaned the air.  Old Ms. Green Leaves worked all day to make the city cleaner and healthier so the kids could come out and climb her again.  She swept up one street and down another.  She went to the factories waving her branches.  The people in the factories came out and decided to find ways to make the air stay clean.

Old Ms. Green Leaves was very tired when she went back to her roots that day.  Her branches hung very low but she was satisfied because now the children could come out and climb her branches once again.

The children were happy too because now they could come outside, play under her branches and climb Old Ms. Green Leaves once again

The End!