to make everything you need a cloud.... or a flower

If you are a poet, you will see clearly
that there is a cloud floating in this sheet of paper.
Without a cloud, there will be no rain;
without rain, the trees cannot grow:
and without trees, we cannot make paper.
The cloud is essential for the paper to exist.
If the cloud is not here, the sheet of paper cannot
be here either.

-Thich Nhat Hanh -

         To make a table you need wood, 
         to make wood you need a tree
 
         to make a tree you need a seed, 
         to make a seed you need a fruit
 
         to make a fruit you need a flower, 
         to make a table you need a flower.

 
         To make a flower you need a branch, 
         to make a branch you need a tree
 
         to make a tree you need a forest, 
         to make a forest you need a mountain
 
         to make a mountain you need earth, 
         to make the earth you need a flower
 
         to make everything you need a flower.
 

         - Gianni Rodari -