The green leaves is a short story written by Grace Ogot, this story reflects the condition of people living in Caribbean islands under the rule British Government. This story comes under Post colonial literature in English literature, literature written about the colonizer or the impact or aftermath of British government falls under this category.
In Grace Ogot short story she has tried to show the best of it in just a night and days scene. The story starts with Nyagar who is sleeping in his house and thinks that he is dreaming but in reality there is noise of some people running outside his house. He gets up and sees towards her wife but she was missing so he goes near the main door and finds that the main door was open so he gets very angry on her wife saying that how can she leave his hut without taking his permission. Then he moves out of his hut and goes to see what was the noise going outside, he finds that a three people running and a group of people running behind them and he get confuse. Suddenly someone screams catch them they are robbing cattle’s then he comes to know that they are thieves and the villagers are chasing them.
Nyagar also joins the group and starts chasing the thieves, after running a mile the thieves lost there way and they miss the bridge which they had to take to go to their village so they jump into the river and try to swim to reach their village but there was a whirlpool in the water which made it difficult to swim and go and hence they were caught by the villagers. The villager started beating them brutally in this a thief escaped and ran towards the bushes and was hiding behind the bushes then the villagers followed him and smashed in bushes with their clubs on bushes but there was no sound so they came back. The other thief attacked Omoro with his knife and he also escaped now there was only one thief left who was brutally beaten. After sometime the thief was unconscious so Omoro stopped all the villagers and told them that they should go back to their village because they thought that if he dies in front of there eyes then his evil spirit will be on their village. They covered the thief’s body with green leaves and decided to meet early in the morning to bury his dead body.
Everyone went back to their huts, when Nyagar reached his hut he thought that the thief might have some money which he can take from him so he starts walking towards the thief's body. On the way he feels that someone is following him but it was all his hallucination due to fear. After reaching near the body he again thinks why he needs money he has enough of money but he also says that nobody has enough money and also he has came till here than i will take the money and go back. He searches the thief’s pocket but he finds nothing so then he remembers that the cattle traders keep their money tied to their necks so he checks over there and finds a bag tied with a locket and he tries to remove it then suddenly something hits Nyagar's face and he fall down on the ground. It was the thief who had regained consciousness; the thief covered Nyagar's body with the same green leaves and crossed the bridge to reach his village.
The next morning unreal drums were beaten and the clan leader Olilio gathered people in the center of the town and told everything to the villagers what happened yesterday night. Now he thought that if the British government comes to know about this then they will punish the murderer so the clan leader tells the villagers that if we stand united than the government cannot do anything to them. In there culture killing a thief is not a crime but according to British government it is a crime. He sends ten selected people from their village to inform the British government that they have killed a man. Meanwhile Nyagar’s wife is in search of his husband but she can’t find her and thinks that he might be one of the ten people who had gone to meet the British government. After few minutes a police truck comes from which one British officer and 4 African police step down. The British officer asks the clan leader who killed that man the villagers say we then the inspector asks who hit him first the villagers again say we all hit him first ignoring this the police inspector asks them where is the dead body then the villagers take him over there and when they remove the green leaves from the body the villagers get a shock because it was Nyagar’s and not the thief’s but the villagers think that the evil spirit has entered their town in Nyagar’s form. Nyagar’s wife starts crying then the British officer drags the body of Nyagar his wife stops the officer but the officer ignores her and drags his body and takes his body for autopsy and his wife strips her cloths till waist and follows the truck crying and singing a traditional song and with this the story ends.
The link given below is of the short story 'The Green Leaves' you can get access to the complete story from here.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TA6aOSw3ypnaEfFlQuRdrdc9mim313c_/view?usp=drivesdk
