I once knew a girl.

She would chuckle as she ran through the tall, thick grass that led to her favourite tree, the one by the pond where water trickled down the mossy rocks like a clear soft blanket. By that tree lived insects of all colours, shapes, and sizes moving in time with nature - butterflies spreading their vibrant wings, caterpillars crawling slowly along the bark of the branches, crickets chirping their harmonies as the day passed and evening came.

Drops of liquid sun melted into the water of the pond, spreading its warmth to the green leaves of the trees, nestling itself into the girl's fair hair, which flowed with the wind. The golden light kissed her youthful face like the tender caress of nature, and her eyes shone with bliss at the scenery.

I once knew a girl who greeted the friendly woodpecker and said hello to the fish swimming about in the cool pond as she laid herself down under her favourite tree. To be forever frozen in time as she listened to the quiet whispers that came from the leaves high up in the sky - breathing in and out as she let her worries wash away with the wind.

Now, that girl is older and explores the new damp building site, coughing as the murky air fills her lungs with black soot. She listens to the clash of metal, the scraping of concrete, and the devastation of streets and cars honking from every direction. She runs across the newly paved black tar roads as she looks, she looks and looks and looks for her pond. Where have they all gone? The woodpecker and the swimming fish and the chirping crickets? Where was her tree?

I once knew a girl because that girl was me.