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Humans tend not to recognize what does not move as living. This is a bias rooted in our visually driven perception, and at the same time, a quiet blind spot in modern society.
Plants do not move—at least not in ways that are immediately legible to human senses, such as walking, running, or sudden motion. Because of this, we often treat plants as part of the background. Street trees, garden flowers, forests covering distant mountains—they are always there, silent and unobtrusive. As a result, despite being undeniably alive, they are pushed to the periphery of our awareness.
Forests exemplify this tendency. They breathe, store water, nurture soil, shelter countless species, and support human life at its very foundation. Yet their work unfolds so gradually, across spans of time far longer than a human life, that it rarely registers as “activity.” Trees grow, age, die, and regenerate on a scale that exceeds our own. What appears motionless is not inactive; it simply moves at a pace beyond our perception.
Consequently, humans forget the benefits they receive from forests. Clean air, circulating water, stable climates—these are treated as givens rather than as the results of continuous biological processes carried out by plants. Gratitude fades, and consideration is replaced by assumption.
Still, forests continue to live. Even when unnoticed, even without recognition or praise, plants absorb light, extend their roots, and pass life on to the next generation. Their existence persists amid human indifference. Yet this endurance should not be romanticized as invulnerability. Being silent does not mean being unharmed.
It is not that plants fail to move; it is that we fail to look. To recognize plants and forests once again as living beings, we must loosen our fixation on speed and efficiency and widen our sense of time. Understanding quiet life requires a quiet way of seeing.
The forest is still there today—but it is not merely scenery.
It is a living presence, continuing to give while being forgotten, existing steadfastly beside our own lives.
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