La Madremonte - Colombian

My name is Mateo, and I live in a tiny village right where the green mountains touch the fluffy white clouds. The air always smells like sweet flowers and rain-soaked dirt, and every morning, loud howler monkeys and rainbow-colored birds sing a song that wakes everyone up. But our elders always tell us to listen for a different sound, a little whisper that travels on the wind. They say it's the sound of the forest watching over us. This is the story of its guardian, a legend they call La Madremonte. They told us she protects every single tree and every little creature, so we must always be kind and respectful to our jungle home.

One sunny afternoon, some men from a city far away arrived with rumbling machines that were louder than any monkey. They didn't listen to our elders and started cutting down the oldest, wisest trees, which scared all the animals deep into the shadows. Suddenly, the sky turned a grumpy gray, and a thick, soupy fog rolled down the mountains like a giant blanket, swallowing the whole jungle. I was hiding behind some big, leafy ferns and watched the men get all mixed up. The paths they had made disappeared. The jungle seemed to twist and turn around them like a puzzle. 'Hello?' they called out, but their voices sounded tiny and lost in the mist. That's when I saw her. Standing as tall as the biggest Ceiba tree, she was covered from head to toe in soft green moss and tangled vines. Leaves grew like hair from her head, and her eyes glowed like two bright fireflies in the dark. It was La Madremonte. She didn't have to shout or roar. She just stood there, perfectly still, a part of the forest itself. The men were so scared they dropped their loud tools and ran. But every path they tried just led them in a big circle. Finally, a soft breeze cleared one single trail, showing them the way out of the jungle, and they ran until they were gone for good.

Those men never came back to our jungle. Our elders smiled and told me, 'La Madremonte, the Mother Mountain, has protected her home.' I finally understood. La Madremonte wasn't meant to be scary; she is the forest's guardian, a protector of all the living things within it. Her story is told all over my country, Colombia, to remind everyone that nature is powerful and very special. Artists paint pictures of her with a crown of shiny leaves, and parents tell the story to their children so we all learn to take care of the earth. The legend teaches us to listen to the whisper of the wind and to be thankful for the cool shade of the trees. It’s a story that helps us remember that we are all guardians of this beautiful world, just like her.