“The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing which stands in their way.” – William Blake
Since 1993, one of my families’ favorite places in the whole world to vacation is in the beautiful islands of Hawaii. Our destination of choice is a stone’s throw from the historic town of Koloa on the island of Kauai.
When I am home in the State of Washington in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, I often dream of being in Kauai, particularly during endless weeks when local weather forecasters in my area attempt to outdo each other with euphemisms like “cloudy with intermittent showers” to describe the local weather.
On those days, all I have to do in order to transport myself to more sunny climes is close my eyes and imagine cruising down the highway from Lihue, turning left at the tree tunnel and heading down the two lane road toward Koloa Town past the road sign warning of potholes, the old cemetery and finally emerging - in Paradise, as the unique and distinctive monkeypod tree canopy that lines the main street retail corridor rises over the horizon with a special aloha.
“No town can fail of beauty, though its walks were gutters and its houses hovels, if venerable trees make magnificent colonnades along its streets.” – Henry Ward Beecher, Proverbs, 1887
However, it now appears this repeat tourist must severely edit this particular dream after January 2, 2008 due to the imminent destruction of these very trees as written under Rachel Gehrlein's byline in an article entitled "Community rallies to save monkeypod trees in Koloa" in The Garden Island newspaper on Thursday, December 13, 2007.
The reason? Development pressures from economic interests motivated as always by visions of ever higher piles of cold hard cash. In short - Koloa’s green trees are scheduled to fall in favor of greenbacks.
