The sneaker is made of canvass and of rubber, undershorts of fabric and
elastic. The notebook is made up of wire and paper. A TV set is of plastic with an
antenna on top and a screen in front. A house is made of a roof, walls, floors,
windows and doors. A cow is of hide, horns and four teats dripping milk. A dog is a
hairy bus full of fleas. A human being is made of flesh, bones, heart and ideas
marching through his head.

And what about the world we live in?

The world is a lot of land surrounded by water on all sides.

Water is the sea, the river, the lake, the rain, the tear and spit.

Earth is really earth.

It is so important that if an extraterrestrial flew by piloting a flying saucer and
halts in the skies and asks what is this thing here called, any child in arms will shout:
“This here is the earth, have you never seen it before?”

There are those who think that the earth is good only for digging a hole in the
ground, to be a hotel for earthworms, to sink down a lamp post or to make your feet
dirty on a rainy day, but it is not that at all.

If it were not for the earth, where would we walk on?

Were it not for the earth, where would we build our house?

What about the cities? And the roads? And the little football fields?

Without the earth we would never more play football!

I had a dream once. I dreamed I was asleep and wished to pee. I went on dreaming
and jumped out of bed. Poor me! When I stepped on the floor I found out that in that
dream there was no floor. And there I went falling, dropping, flying, and fluttering.
The world was a place without earth and because of that everything floated on air. I
left the room, went on flapping, went through the living room full of chairs, furniture
and tables flying and arrived at the bathroom. Inside that the shower, the sink and the
toilet seemed to be white things floating in space. I tried to pee but the toilet wouldn’t
stay still. The need was becoming acute. I tried to aim, I did my best, but it did not
work. I woke up all wet, with my brother below me screaming for help. We sleep in a
bunker bed, I on top and he below.

My brother called me all the names in the book. I explained to him that if it
were not for the firm earth the bunker bed would be flying and it would then much,
much worse.

Thinking about it, the earth is the most important thing in this our world. It is
the soil, the ground, the farmland, the floor, the port, the place where we stand and
build our lives. Without the earth there would be no going running, playing cops and
robbers. Nor riding a bike, or going downhill on a skate. No throwing a top and not
even thinking of playing marbles. Were it not for the earth the airplanes would stay
flying in the sky until they ran out of gas and then fell into the nothing.

Truth to tell, the earth is a kind of mother. The mother of us all.

Where do the trees come from, to afford us shade and safety? From the earth.

Where do fruits come from, for us to eat? From the earth.

Where does the spring of the river come from? And the flower? And the bird?

And the jaguar? And the turtle? And the butterfly? And the monkey? And the
little beetle? And all the animals of the world, except the fish and the sea stars?

With no earth where would the beasts go hunting, where to live and dwell?

With no earth there would be no corn, no oranges, no pears, no bananas, no
grapes, no cocoa, no strawberries, no cherries, no tangerine, no pomegranate, no
avocado, no watermelon, no peanuts, no nothing. The world would be just a lot of
nothing surrounded by water on all sides. However, the earth has its tricks. It doesn’t
like being mistreated, no sir!

It sometimes gets so angry it trembles. Such earthquakes come that God help
us.

Or it then opens its mouth and lets out a big fire out and becomes a volcano.

When people set fires or destroy the bush or fill the ground with trash and dirt
the earth goes sad and the sad land becomes a desert, an arid, dry, barren body, and
nothing grows anymore.

She that was generous, beautiful, wet, full of flowers, smiling, soft, fertile, full
of shade, full of perfume, full of fresh water, full of songbirds, of colorful blossoms,
small creeks, butterflies, small beetles, small and big animals all of a sudden goes
hard and cracked and can only make up sand and dust and desolation.

If the earth became a desert there would be a ground, but how would we be?