"
Tree for Peace, Woodbridge 2017

Do you mind being a symbol,
you, whose self, so much your self,
signals to sky that you're there, ready
to help the weather?

Should, I perhaps, call you 'city' since
you host colonies of creatures?
Funghi, mosses, creepers and winged
migrants lodge deep in your skin.

Your roots are like urban motorways
for countless lives to travel,
and your branches
are live with birds.

But you speak a language
all your own,
and, teacher of such shared delight,
now we understand how peace may grow
from the gracious spaces
of your silence.

Kate Foley
October 2017

"

So our voices for peace must speak to power with words that echo around the world.

Not many communities have a monument specifically for Peace. The idea of having one was inspired for the Founder in Woodbridge during WW1 centennial commemorations. The idea of a 'Tree for Peace' proved attractive to Woodbridge residents at a Community Fair in 2017. The Town Council readily agreed with the intention of stimulating learning and action to create a more peaceful world, and with the nomination of a fine tree as a symbol. In 2021 a second Tree was identified and agreed. The Trees and a walking Trail were dedicated as a Monument to well-being and peace education.

Trees have long been valued as meeting places, probably from millenia when their prominence and shelter in a sparsely populated landscape will have helped people to meet.  Their fruits and timber have long been valued as food and material for building shelters as well as for making smaller artefacts.
In more recent times trees have remained valued as attractive features in gardens, in parkland and as gifts.  Gifts of cherry trees have become associated with peace and peacemaking.