This is only the type of story I imagine would exist in the world of One Piece, not my theory of where devil's fruits actually come from. It's a story within a story.

DISCLAIMER: One Piece, the Devil's Fruits and all their powers belong to Oda Eiichiro.

The Tale of the Devil's Fruit Tree.

There once was a tree sprout with very low self-esteem. It was told that when it grew up, it would bare wonderful fruit for people to eat, but that was not what the sprout wanted for itself. It wanted everything in the world.

The particular island where the little sprout lived was world famous for having the largest open market in all the seas. Everyday the sprout was brought out into the market to be sold, and slowly it grew envious of all it saw. It saw the amazing fire which cooked the food, and also the smoke that rose from it, and how could fit into any nook or cranny, but couldn't be hurt. Packs and herds and flocks of animals and humans would roam through the market, and the sprout wanted to be able to walk and speak and run and do all the things those animals could do. The sprout envied everything that could be repaired when it was broken...when the sprout was cut, it wasn't able to put itself back together again, nor could it stretch the great distances of the rubber bands. It couldn't flourish itself like the flowers, and when a storm raged through, it could only tremble in the great winds and terrible lightning. It felt wind and wanted to be free, it saw steel and wanted to be unbreakable. Everyday as the sprout saw more and more things; it began to understand why no one wanted it; who would want a little plant who did none of the great things achieved by everything else in the market? When finally one day the sprout was finally bought, it was so immersed in its envy, it completely missed it.

The sprout, which was now becoming a handsome little tree, did not loose its jealousy, and as it grew, its sentiments only spread farther. Attracting all manner of brutes and villains to its little grove and eventually driving away the family who tended it. One day, while the tree was brooding, it was startled to hear a voice speaking directly to it...something that had never happened before...

"Everything you feel I have felt, and I want to know what it is you really want..."

"What I want? I want everything that I have seen! Everything in the world! I want to be able to do all the things I am unable to do! Stuck here in this mud I can't do anything!" The little tree exploded with fury, saying the mantra that had been going through its head ever since its first day in the market place.

"And if I could give you these abilities...if I could give you the power to do all the things you've seen? Would you take it all?"

"I would!" Screamed the tree.

"You say you have seen everything the world has...are you sure?" The little tree didn't hesitate, sure that it had seen everything there was to see, and told the strange voice just that. "Do you deny everything you may not have seen?"

"YES!"

Then you have chosen your enemy...

After the tree's exclamation...there was a sudden, heavy silence. The tree almost thought it heard a low, rumbling laugh, but it disappeared before it could be sure of it. The voice was gone and the tree was left flustered and confused, still reeling from its conversation, suddenly unsure it had occurred... was there anything it had never encountered?

Over the next year, the tree began to bare fruit. With no one there any longer to pick it, the fruit fell to the ground- but would mysteriously never rot. The fruit, however, managed fine on its own, and would find ways to roll away and spread itself out. The tree by this point had forgotten about the voice, dismissing it as some, tree mental health problem...until one day, when a traveler came along and picked up one of its fruit. He glared at the funny looking fruit for a little while, before simply shrugging and taking a bite. The tree shivered, and it suddenly remembered the time it had felt the air on its leaves... the man who had taken a bite of the tree's fruit grimaced at the unpleasant taste and dropped it to the floor. The tree noticed that the man's face had paled when he glanced at his hand, and then the tree saw why- his hand was gone. His entire arm was slowly fading from view- the traveler's eyes rolled to the back of his head and he proceeded to collapse. As the man lay there...the realization slowly dawned in the tree's mind. The conversation it had had with the strange voice came flooding back into its mind...it was the fruit! That was how the tree was going to have everything! As the tree rejoiced in its own tree way, its fruit was slowly finding its way around the world- riding on ships, in baskets, floating in boxes, carried by animals, by men- it began to spread around the world...

This should be interesting...thought the voice.

--- THE END ---

So that's my short little folktale-esk, One Piece world tale of the origin of the first devil's fruit! Who was the voice? El Diablo? Who knows...

I hope you all got the part about the tree's 'enemy'. It had never seen the sea before, and I didn't want to explain that any further, hoping people may figure that out themselves. I almost made the sea a character, but I like this way better.