We are not the
owners of this planet,
only the echoes of its care,
where waterfalls speak
in silver tongues,
where dirt
clings to our hands
like an old friend’s touch,
where the loam yields warmth
rich with a scent of life,
and where the
depredations of human greed
diminish the Koa and Taro fields….
.
We are not the
owners of this planet…
We dwell here as living threads
in a tapestry the land keeps weaving,
where the ground remembers
every footstep,
where every leaf
whispers a promise,
and every stone
guards a vow,
where roots drink
the chronicles of rainfall
and receive each day as a gift…
.
‘Malama Ka Aina’,
is to guard the
heartbeat
beneath our feet,
‘Malama Ka Aina’
is to guard earths
breathe as our own,
‘Malama Ka Aina’
is to hold the earth as
one holds a sleeping child,
‘Malama Ka Aina’ is to
let our love
grow fragrantly as
the forest after rainfall,
‘Malama Ka Aina’ is
to walk as a guest,
and a guardian,
on God’s creation,
for we are
the keepers
of a story older
than our names,
a story far older than
our generations, we are
earths stewards, given
a sacred duty that
far too many have forsaken…
.
© Richard Lloyd Cederberg
8/2026
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