The selfish snake

Paulina Gómez Ramones 

Cristela Leal Peña 

 

 

In a regular day in the jungle, all the animals were enjoying the day. The tiger was walking around the jungle, enjoying everyone’s company. The toucan stood in a tree branch where he usually watched the sunset. The hippo, as usual, was having a long bath in the lake. The cheetah loved to run and joke around with everyone. The frog was the most friendly of all the animals in the jungle; he would always babysit everyone’s babies. Everybody had a great relationship and would always get together in the weekend to enjoy a pleasant afternoon, with the exception of the snake, that was always grumpy and alone.

One day, the tiger who was the leader of the jungle and usually solved the problems that the animals had, asked the snake if there was something wrong. The snake just turned around and said to the tiger to go away. The tiger insisted to the snake that he could have a good day with the other animals, and the snake very angry screamed to him, “Oh yes, a good day watching the cheetah running with his large legs, the toucan laughing with his big and colorful pick, the hippo enjoying the water form the lake, the frog with his friendly attitude and his pattern skin and finally you, being loved by everyone and feeling like the king of the jungle, and look at me I can´t do anything of that things so why should I go? I don’t want to go, so go away!” Now the tiger knew the snake was jealous of every single animal that lived there and he felt that he was less than the others.

The snake felt so irritated, he knew there only was one solution to his problem, the magic tree. This was a tree that had been living for a thousand years already, a tree that could answer any question. This tree was in the middle of the jungle, in the darkest area. The snake was desperate to find an answer to his situation. When he arrived to the magic tree he told him “I hate every animal in this jungle for different reasons, everything is so unfair.” The magic tree asked “ and what can I do for you?” The snake replayed that he wanted to disappear all the animals that lived in the jungle and wanted to live forever by his own. The magic tree with words of wisdom answered, “Go to the river and pour your venom into it. This way, everyone will die slowly when they drink the water.” The snake was anxious to make this plan happen, he rushed into the river and started to pour all of his venom. He stayed there for almost two days. At the end of the second day, he felt so weak. He felt sick and died. The rest of the animals in the jungle drank from the river and started to die one by one. This ended with the tiger, the toucan, the cheetah, the 
hippo and the frog as well as with every single living thing in the jungle. The snake was so selfish that he ended with the world but he didn’t know that his envy would also end with him too.

Moral of the story: Envy and selfishness will end with everyone that surrounds you and with yourself.

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