Explanation:

The poet describes the tree as if it was a human being. Like man, the tree has grown slowly consuming the earth, eating and drinking from it, absorbing and soaking in innumerable years of air, sunlight and water. The bleeding bark is compared to the discoloured skin of a man suffering from leprosy. It too feels pain and pleasure alike the human beings. So he uses the expression ‘killing the tree’ rather than ‘destroying’ or cutting’ it.

The poet speaks about the killing of a tree. He says that a lot of work has to be done in ORDER to kill a tree and it cannot be killed by merely attacking it with an axe. The tree has fed upon the earth and grown from its crust by absorbing water from the soil for many years. It has also taken years of sunlight and oxygen to grow. HACKING and chopping is not enough for killing it as the bark heals itself. The part of the trunk which is CLOSE to the GROUND may give RISE to new twigs, and the discoloured bark of the tree gives rise to new leaves.

Soon the tree grows to its former size. The poet says that to kill a tree one must attack its roots by pulling it out of the earth where it has been hiding safely all these years. When the root is pulled out of the earth, it is white and wet as it is very sensitive. The root, which is the strength of the tree, is then left exposed to the air and the sun where it starts drying and discolouring. It goes through stages of browning, hardening, twisting and withering before it finally dies.