Few years ago, I ran into the famous climber Appa Sherpa near Tyangboche. He was leading a group to scale Mt. Everest. He had left the fellow climbers up in the mountains and had climbed down to take in the greenery. I remember him saying: “I need to see greenery after a certain stay in high mountains.” A simple fact: without all that is green, life would be pathetic. Let’s think about it. Why is a particular place beautiful? One invariable reason is that nature has bestowed that place with greenery. If there is something that man so instinctively gets attracted to and needs till death, it is greenery. Otherwise why would the ‘civilised’ city-dwellers bedeck their houses with green plants — in flower-vases if there isn’t enough space? Earth is virtually a green carpet, profusely beautified by a mosaic of various colours: grey deserts, deep blue seas and oceans, murky green rivers, white snow and red rocks. Nepal, especially post-monsoon, is a miniature green carpet on a giant one, the earth. Even in districts like Mustang and Dolpa, lush green oasis poke fun at the arid land and dry climate. Well-trimmed golf terrain, five-star lawns, verdant natural spaces, green flowery meadows, grassy pastures and grasslands as well as football grounds (except ours’, of course) are green marvels to behold anywhere in the world. Human beings, unless they are pretty ‘green’, understand that their general well-being, including sanity, is to an extent related to greenery. After all, we are all animals deep down, aren’t we? That explains why we most greedily run after green leaves, for example. In other words, it’s rare to spot people running after dry vegetable leaves except our very own gundruk. Forget human beings. Herbivores rush towards greenery, hungry or not. Even predators prefer to stay inside deep, lush green forests, as much for security as for calm and serenity. That’s the reason why, for instance, it’s not wise to expect a lion to show up on your doorstep. The World Environment Day has come and gone. Just like that. But in the meantime, let us continue our fight against global warming and deforestation and keep our fragile earth an evergreen carpet.