The scorching rays of the sun were impossible to bear. The magnificent river, its width once as great as the Burj Khalifa was tall, was reduced to a trickle of black water. It was nearly the end of December and winter was nowhere in sight. It had been many decades since the earth had last embraced the soft, moist fall of snow. It had loathed its presence in the past but now, it yearned to have even a thousandth of a second with it. How had the humans become so selfish? How did they grow so cruel that they annihilated the Earth, the nature and the environment to such an extent that it was incapable of doing anything?
The human population was on the verge of extinction, only a few tens left here and there. In the endeavors to establish their control over an unconquerable thing, of these so-called humans failed to realize that they were rapidly chasing their own death. The democracy which once existed and condemned dictatorship, was found to be hypocritical. Every president of every country and the kings of every monarchy were diabolical dictators. They dictated to nature. They dictated to the Earth. And without even realizing, they dictated themselves to death. How could they think that they would prosper, flourish, and rule if they completely eradicated the means by which to achieve their superficial goals?
But the glorious Earth still refused to give up. It believed in the good of everything. It believed that whatever the humans were doing or planning to do, was for its own benefit. However, sometimes when the Earth was dug too deep or the pollution saturated its air with black soot, it was unable to control its disappointment. The Earth, in its attempt to save the humans, expressed only a tiny fraction of its sadness. This minute cry, in the form of pandemics, droughts, and hurricanes would kill a few humans, but in the long run, they would be a nudge to the human race. But nobody ever felt it.
The cruelty of the humans increased year after year, decade after decade and century after century. The green lands were replaced by broken ground. The thirst of the humans did not even leave snow on the mountains, or at the poles of the North and the South. Even the water from the vast lakes and inland seas had sunk. Dried sticks were seen in place of lush, green trees, and flora and fauna were nowhere in sight. The humans had eaten them too. They seemed to have mastered the art of torturing the earth. The disappointment had turned into anger that the Earth kept bottled up inside. The Earth was suffocating. It was becoming impossible to bear the load which increased yearly. It felt crushed. It felt defeated. Most of the time, the Earth would wonder:
“Was there anything wrong with the way I brought them up? I did my utmost. I sacrificed everything. I even happily parted with parts of my body just to satisfy their insatiable hunger!”
The cry was unheard and so was the Earth’s pleading to the humans to stop. The bottle of patience, love, kindness, appreciation, gratitude, harmony, peace and loyalty was now full of suppressed feelings of hatred, malice, greed, ignorance and intolerance. The bottle was now cracking and the Earth’s desire and willpower to keep it intact was faltering. The emotions were now leaking and terrifying the humans. Over the years, the cracks grew bigger and bigger. Although the Earth tried its best to control itself, the flow of distress was unstoppable. It was bound to happen and nothing could stop it. The billions of people burdening the earth were wiped out leaving only a few. A huge weight lifted off of the Earth and somehow it felt relieved. The weight of the remaining humans was like the weight of cotton. Wanting to enjoy freedom, when the Earth went to touch its free body, stretch out its arms, yawn, and roll its eyes, it realized that the humans had done even more damage than it had felt.
The high density of population had overpowered the Earth's pain itself. The Earth realized that its body was full of scars which were not just marks but deep cracks, long enough to reach its heart. The sun, once its friend, was now helpless to save it. The abundant water in the Earth was all soaked up. The few drops which were left were polluted. Despite being famished and parched, the Earth let out its water in deep cries.
However, now the tears of the Earth which were visible as a thin stream, was useless for the remaining humans. If they would be called humans. Humans devoid of humanity. The Earth felt that if had it not been selfless, and given everything to the service of mankind, it would have survived. It could no longer even sustain itself. It knew that it was dying and held itself responsible for not releasing its bottled-up anger and disappointment before.
