The tree is more than first a seed, then a stem, then a living trunk, and then dead timber. The tree is a slow, enduring force straining to win the sky.

The image of the tree rejects a purely mechanical, stage-by-stage account of life (seed → stem → trunk → timber). Instead, it insists on an inner continuity: a living being is defined by its long, directed effort—its “slow, enduring force”—rather than by the snapshots we take of it at different moments. Read in a Saint-Exupéry key, the tree becomes a metaphor for human vocation and character: growth is gradual, often invisible, and sustained by an orientation toward something higher (“to win the sky”). The line also critiques utilitarian reduction—seeing the tree only as future lumber—by restoring dignity to process, striving, and purpose.