A Brief Ecological story: The Chameleon and Those Slightly Stupid Humans

Short ecological story.

A chameleon was happily sitting on a tree branch high up.
The first passerby arrives and notices him. What a beautiful chameleon! and starts staring at him with his nose up in the air. The second passerby arrives and notices the first passerby with his nose up in the air. He also raises his nose, sees the chameleon and exclaims “come on! that’s a chameleon! what is he doing there on the branch so high up?”. The third passerby arrives and sees the second and the first passerby with their noses up in the air and he also raises his nose and sees the green chameleon resting on the branch, and he has an extra idea “what is he doing so high up?? we have to get him down! Bring him down among us!” Then the fourth passerby arrives and joins the third and the second and the first and he also raises his nose up “Oh what a beautiful chameleon! But isn’t he too high up? Isn’t that dangerous?” And so on with the fifth passerby and the sixth passerby and the seventh passerby. Then the son of the second passerby arrives and he says to him “look my son, that’s a chameleon!” “Why is he so high up daddy? Isn’t he in danger of falling?”. And the daughter of the second passerby arrives and doesn’t ask anything but just raises her nose up and sees the chameleon “but he’s green daddy! Why is he green daddy? Wasn’t he red?” “He’s green because he’s lying on the leaves of the branch, daughter” “but how high up is he daddy! And if he falls, daddy? He’ll hurt himself!” “The little girl is right,” said the first passerby! “We have to get him down from that branch, or he’ll hurt himself!” exclaimed the second. “Yes, yes!!” exclaimed the two children. Then the second passerby, the father of the two children, took a long branch and held it out towards the chameleon. When the latter saw the branch intrusively coming towards him, he didn’t understand what those human creatures he always avoided with such caution wanted. Meanwhile, the lady who lived with the window overlooking the chameleon’s tree was disturbed by the  chorus of indistinct voices coming into her room and decided to go down to see what was happening. She saw the group of well-meaning passerbies trying to get the little beast down, and the poor chameleon who was no longer calmly perched on the branch up there. The woman asked, “What’s happening?” The second passerby at that point had managed to get the poor chameleon up on his branch and take him down to hearth. “Very good,” said the woman. “But now we have to protect him from the cats, who will eat him if they see him on the ground!”. “You’re right!” said the passers-by in chorus. “We have to put him back on the branch, that is so high he will be safe from the cats!” And they took the branch again and put him back on it and brought him to the top of the tree, where he was already resting calm and happily until a group of slightly but well-meaning stupid humans came to save him. End of the beautiful story.

 

 

 

 

Breve storia ecologica.

Un camaleonte se ne stava beato sul ramo di un albero ben in alto.
Arriva il primo passante e lo nota. “Ma che bel camaleonte!” e si mette a fissarlo col naso in sù. Arriva il secondo passante che nota il primo passante col naso in sù. Anche lui alza il naso, vede il camaleonte ed esclama “ma dai! ma quello è un camaleonte! che ci sta fare lì beato sul ramo così in alto?”. Arriva così il terzo passante che vede il secondo e il primo passante col naso all’insù e anche lui solleva il naso e vede il verde camaleonte che se la spassa sdraiato sul ramo, e quello ha un’idea in più “ma cosa se ne sta a fare così in alto?? dobbiamo farlo scendere! portarlo giù tra noi!” Arriva così il quarto passante che si unisce al terzo e al secondo e al primo ed alza anche lui il naso all’insù “Eh ma che bel camaleonte! ma non sta troppo in alto? non sarà pericoloso?” E così via il quinto passante e il sesto passante e il settimo passante. Poi arriva il figlio del secondo passante e lui gli dice “guarda figlio mio, quello è un camaleonte!” “perché sta così in alto papà? Non rischia di cadere?”. Ed arriva la figlia del secondo passante che non chiede niente ma alza solo il maso all’insù e vede il camaleonte “ma è verde papà! perché è verde papà? non sono rossi i camaleonti?” “è verde perché è sdraiato sulle foglie del ramo, figlia mia” “ma come sta in alto papà! e se cade, papà? si farà male!” “ha ragione la bambina “disse il primo passante!”. “dobbiamo farlo scendere da quel ramo, sennò si farà male!” esclamò il secondo. “Si, si!! facciamolo scendere” esclamarono i due bambini. Allora il secondo passante, il papà dei due bambini, prese un lungo ramo e lo allungò verso il camaleonte. Il quale, vedendoselo arrivare addosso, non capiva che cosa volessero quelle creature d’umano che ogni giorno evitava ogni con tanta cura. Intano la signora la cui finestra che dava sull’albero del camaleonte sentiva il coro di voci chiassose fino in camera e decise di scendere per vedere cosa stesse accadendo. Vide il gruppo di benintenzionati vicini di casa che cercavano di far scender  il povero camaleonte, che se ne stava appollaiato non più tanto tranquillo sul ramo lassù in alto. La donna chiese “ma cosa sta succedendo?” “e vide che il secondo passante era riuscito a far salire il povero camaleonte sul suo ramo e a portarlo a terra” “Molto bravi”, disse la donna, “ma ora dobbiamo difenderlo dai gatti, che se lo vedono se lo mangiano!”. “Hai ragione!” dissero in coro i passanti. E ripresero il ramo,  ce lo rimisero sopra e lo risollevarono lassù in cima all’albero, dove se n’era stato tranquillo e beato fino a che un gruppo di stupidi umani fosse venuto a salvarlo. Fine della bella storia.

Copyright © 2024 by Francesca Emilia Papale

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Hi I am Francesca, an Italian who since 2013 has been living as a volunteer in that fantastic, complex and exciting experiment called Auroville, an international community located in Tamilnadu, in southern India. I opened this blog, to which the vlog of the same name is linked, because the time has come for me to delve into the art of writing. My dream is to be able to publish those short stories that I have been cultivating inside me for many years but have never yet dared to put on paper. Now I’m ready to give myself this chance and I’m definitely setting out on this new adventure. Would you like to take this journey with me?

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