Understanding Trees

Due to negligent oversight, a young parakeet escaped it’s cage (and the resident cat), by darting through an open window and rising high into the afternoon sky for the first time in it’s life. Below, it’s former owner winked and yelled through the window, rubber gloves still on, rag still in hand. The bird flew and flew until the city was long gone, replaced only by strange green patterns below, and soon the young bird ran into an old crow that was lazily floating in a southern breeze.

"Hello Mr. Crow, how are you?"
"I am doing very well, Mr. Parakeet, how are you?"
"Just dandy, just dandy indeed…this is my first time in the sky."
"You don’t say. And at your age!"
"Oh please don’t poke fun, I’ve been imprisoned you see."
"My sincere apologies, Mr. Parakeet."
"Say, Mr Crow, what is that strange green pattern down there?"
"Strange green pattern? Why, those are trees of course."
"Trees plural? I’m not sure I understand."
"Why, how could you not, Mr Parakeet? We have a birds eye view from up here, understanding them should be as clear as crystal."
"They simply look like an endless smudge of green, Mr. Crow, how am I to believe that they consist of more than one object?"
"Perhaps if we get closer, Mr Parakeet, you will be able to understand them better."

So the two birds flew down, closer to the tree tops, and the young one discovered that the smudge of green was actually a collection of leaves attached to tiny twigs which extended downward.

"Ahh, now I see! The green smudge actually comes from a collection of things, now I understand what you meant by trees plural."
"Those are leaves, Mr. Parakeet, not trees."
"Then where are the trees you mentioned, Mr Crow?"
"Why, the leaves are as much trees as the green smudge you noticed earlier, they are the same thing."
"Why are some leaves different shapes than the others, Mr Crow?"
"Because those leaves are from a different tree, Mr. Parakeet, the branches must have gotten crossed somewhere below."
"Branches, Mr. Crow?"
"Yes, Mr. Parakeet, fly beneath the leaves with me and have a look."

So the two birds flew farther downward still, under the tree canopy and into the dark and intricate network of branches.

"My heavens, Mr Crow! Look at how complicated this network of branches is!"
"Not quite as complicated as it looks, Mr Parakeet, you see everything funnels downward, from leaves to twigs, from twigs to branches, from branches to tree trunks, and from tree trunks to ground. See those thick brown cylinders poking out of the earth? Just beneath the soil there lies the root of all trees, the place from which trunks and branches and leaves originate from, though I don’t recommend– hey wait!"

The young bird, eager to understand the full nature of the green smudge he saw from the sky, flew down from the lowest branch and landed on the ground next to one of the larger tree trunks, and looked upwards at the vast expanding network of branches. The crow was squawking something at him that he couldn’t quite understand, and had he not been trying to fruitlessly poke holes in the earth with his beak to see what was beneath, he may have noticed the young mountain lion that was inching towards him with it’s head down…