Echoes of the Evergreen

Whenever I stumble across architectural masterpieces
Or whenever I'm in awe of beautifully crafted highways
I get a newfound appreciation for mankind
Are we the same species who began with nothing at our disposal but sticks and stones and dirt?
We didn't have towering skyscrapers
We didn't have gravity defying tunnels
And we definitely didn't have the means to service ourselves with the snap of a finger
But here we are anyway
In a world that has nearly lost all the traces of our beginning
Where are the lush forests that had once sprawled across our planet?
Where are the wild animals that had once inhabited these evergreen gems?
Where are they?
Their absence is deafening
Echoing farther than a tiger's roar
It should have caught our attention
And I believe it has
But we simply choose to turn a blind eye to it
Feigning ignorance as opposed to taking action
Why? Hasn't Mother Nature done enough for us already?
Hasn't she borne the literal weight of the world on her shoulders?
Hasn't she seen to correct our irreplaceable blunders?
Mankind instigates earthquakes
And mankind instigates floods
Yet, Mother Nature doesn't hesitate to do damage control each time
She ensures that we have a good life
But what do we do in exchange?
We encroach on her land
More than what's required
Driven by plain greed and absolutely nothing else
We amputate her bones mercilessly by cutting down trees
We starve her children by snatching their rightful home away from them
We corrupt every breath of hers with intolerable pollution
We poison the blood flowing in her veins by neglecting the purity of our rivers
And we scar her skin by digging infinitely deep in search of fuel
All of these atrocities aren't just crimes committed against her
They're crimes committed against ourselves
Forests sustain life
They sustain innumerable ecosystems
Who are we to disrupt the delicate balance?
No one, that's who
For so long, we've been nothing but trespassers
Despite having a responsibility to uphold the sanctity of nature
Forests are where life begins
And if we don't tend to it with the care that it deserves
Then that's where life will end as well
How can humanity be responsible
For the destruction of our very essence?
Whenever I think about our misfortune
My eyes well up with tears
Because in a sense, the forest is us
Roots course through our body in the form of veins
Tree rings make up our fingerprints
Marking our individuality
And giving us a place in this world
Our lungs are arborescent
Resembling the mesmerizing canopy of trees
The strands of our hair resemble the climbers
That completely take over the crooked branches
The unfurled moss on the forest floor
Takes after our textured skin
The watchful eyes of the animals
Make up our vision
And their sensitive ears
Make up our keen hearing
If that doesn't prove it
Then I don't know what will
Because we're the forest
And the forest is all of us