第五章 (Chapter Five)

Every day I learned something about the little prince's planet, his departure, and his journey. This information came to me by chance, and unconsciously. Thus, on the third day, I learned about the story of baobabs.

This time it was again because of the sheep, for the little prince suddenly asked me, as if tormented by a serious question: "Is it true that sheep eat shrubs?"

"Yes, that's true."

"Ah, I am so glad!"

I did not understand why it was so important that sheep eat shrubs. The little prince asked again: "Do sheep eat baobabs as well?"

I reminded the little prince that baobab is not a shrub, but a tree as tall as a church. Even if he brought a herd of elephants, they could not eat a single baobab tree.

The little prince laughed: "Then pile them up..." Then he said, "Before baobabs grow up, they are also small saplings, just like shrubs."

"You're right. But why do you want sheep to eat baobabs?"

He replied: "Why, of course!" as if it were the most obvious thing. As for me, I had to rack my brains to understand the problem.

As it turned out, on the little prince's planet, as on other planets, there were good plants and bad plants. Hence, there were good seeds and bad seeds. But seeds were invisible. They slept secretly underground until one of them suddenly had an idea and wanted to wake up. Then it stretched itself, and at first shyly turned toward the sun, growing into an innocent little sprout. If that was a radish or rose sprout, it could be left to grow freely. But if it was a bad plant's sprout, it must be pulled out immediately.

On the little prince's planet, there was a very terrible seed... That was the seed of baobabs. The soil of the planet was full of this kind of seed. If discovered too late, it could never be removed. It would take over the entire planet, its roots drilling everywhere and splitting the planet into pieces. If the planet was too small and there were too many baobabs, it would be completely burst apart.

"It is a matter of discipline," later the little prince said to me. "Every morning after washing up, one must carefully groom the planet. One must regularly weed out the baobabs, just like weeding rose shoots. When they first sprout, they look exactly like rose shoots. Once identified, they should be pulled out immediately. This task, though tedious, is not difficult to do."

One day, he suggested that I draw a beautiful picture so that the children on Earth could understand this matter. He said: "If one day they travel, this will be useful to them. Sometimes, postponing a task to later is not a big deal. But if it comes to baobabs, that means a catastrophe. I know a planet where a lazy man lived; he neglected three small saplings..."

So, based on the little prince's description, I drew that planet. I do not like to speak in a moralist's tone at all. But the danger of baobabs is known to few, and for someone lost on an asteroid, encountering them would have dire consequences. So this time, I broke my usual rule and said bluntly: "Children, beware of baobabs!" It was to warn them that I took so much trouble to draw this picture. This picture is worth everyone's effort to understand.

Perhaps you will wonder why, in this book, none of the other drawings are as magnificent as this one. The answer is simple: I tried to draw the others well, but did not succeed. But when drawing baobabs, I was driven by a sense of urgency, and that is how I came to draw them this way.