David Dagua, "Ancestors become trees and forest masters."

Does the forest feel it when no one visits it? Yes, the forest feels it when people no longer walk there. The forest lived together with people and felt them as its family. That is why it also becomes sad when, suddenly, they stop visiting it. This is how they think in the forest: they must have died; that is why they do not come here anymore. That is what it thinks. It misses them, like family, and waits for them. When will they come?, it used to say. When I go to the rivers and do not enter the forest, I think that the forest does not forget. When you were about to arrive at my sister’s house, I left at that moment and went as far as where my father was walking. There, many things could be heard, like people talking or shouting. I was like my father; I also used to shout. Being in the forest is very joyful: the air is fresh, the cold wind can be felt, and animals can be heard everywhere with their calls. There I reflected: I used to walk here with my parents. Now, even though I no longer walk with them, I still hear the animals’ calls, and that makes me happy. Now I tell my children: I used to walk here with your grandparents. Now that I am alone, I walk together with you. Likewise, there are fish in the rivers and meat from the animals of the forest. People from anywhere may come here and often hold celebrations, but they will not be allowed to hunt because they could wipe out the animals. One day they will realize that when people hunt animals with shotguns, the chief of the forest will hide them and protect them. Then they will no longer eat animals from the forest nor shoot the birds. There will no longer be anyone to advise them as before, when they used to walk there. After a long time, I am telling this; after some time, I speak of it again. We do not want settler people to come here. All this forest will be cut down; the chiefs will go deeper inside, to another place. When they begin to raise more cattle, the forest will end, and so will the animals. Or perhaps the chief was hiding them deep inside so that they could reproduce more. He said this as he left, walking and advising them. Where we live there is a lot of forest. You do not hear vehicles or the sound of chainsaws; it is a forest where everything is silence. Only the airplane flies overhead in the sky; it only passes through the sky. That does not affect the animals at all. Seeing what is happening, I went to tell the people of my village not to hunt many animals, to take only what is necessary to eat, just one or two.