Aa
Issa was eleven years old and lived in a dry village on the edge of the Sahel. Every day he helped fetch water, because the ground around his home was bare and dusty.
At the market, a tourist named Elena asked for directions. After that, she gave Issa a postcard. It showed a smiling child sitting under thick green trees in another African place.
Issa looked at the postcard and asked, “Why does the child look so happy?” Elena told him, “The trees give shade, fruit, and a cooler place to live.”
Issa kept the postcard with him. He imagined his own village covered with trees, and for the first time, that picture gave him a clear reason to want change at home.
At home, Mariam spent many hours looking for water for the family. Issa’s father told him the land was too dry for big dreams.
Later, Issa asked his teacher, Amina, if trees could grow in such dry soil. Amina said they could, if people used seeds, pits, and patient care.
Issa decided to plant one tree near his home. He gathered seeds from a fruit seller and made a small place ready for planting.
He planted the seeds, but the rain did not come soon enough. Before the seeds could grow, the soil dried out.
Then chickens and goats scratched in the soft ground and ruined the first planting. Issa understood that if he wanted young plants to live, he would have to protect them.
Amina showed him how to save cooking water and cover the soil with dry grass. Issa began to use mulch, because it helped the ground stay moist longer.
Behind his house, Issa built a small nursery from old cans and sacks. Instead of waiting for large trees to appear on their own, he started raising seedlings.
The neighbors laughed and said trees could not live in that land. Their mockery did not stop Issa, and he kept working.
Amina helped him choose hardy local seeds. She told him to plant them when the rains began.
Issa and Amina planted the seedlings along the school fence. Then they set thorn branches around the young plants to guard them.
One seedling survived its first dry week and pushed out new green leaves. Issa saw that at least one tree could live there.
He decided to keep planting, even if it took many years. The postcard had become a long-term purpose, not just a passing wish.