davem, do you suppose that a "black heart" is meant, by Tolkien, to mean something other than evil? If so, what? Consider his style in all other places; is it in keeping with LotR to attribute an alternate meaning to it in the case of trees?
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evil as a result of Morgoth's choice - why aren't all the trees evil if that's the cause?
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Because the Valar kept him from achieving complete domination of Arda. Fangorn and the Old Forest may not be evil places, but if Morgoth's taint is on everything, even if he did not dominate everything, why would it turn out that some places in Fangorn must
not be evil? In our world, there is, by way of example, such a thing as genetic predisposition.
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I think for an individual to become evil must be the result of a moral choice...
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Of course, you're entitled to your own theology. Tolkien's theology, however, he being a Roman Catholic, was that of
original sin, which means that we are all born tainted with sin; we start out that way. I know this is offensive to some people, but that is Christian theology, and it's what Tolkien believed. Is it to be found in LotR? If Morgoth's taint is not Tolkien's depiction of original sin in Middle Earth, I don't know what it is. Yes, that's my opinion, and it may be debated. It does seem to be more in keeping with Tolkien's ouvre. Thus, moral choice is only one half of the question of evil.
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So, are all the trees of the Old Forest evil, or just some of them?
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Some of them. Certainly one of them.
I think it would be more helpful to say that the trees of the Old Forest are
aware. It is one of the three definitions of
sentient in my dictionary, but more in keeping with LotR - at least, to my thinking.
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Just as Tom himself & Goldberry, & OMW & the Barrow Wight, don't have any 'relevance' outside their poem-reality ('Tom's country ends here, he will not pass the borders...)
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The barrows and the wights that reside there are definitely a part of Arda/Middle Earth, having to do with the old Kingdom of Arnor and old battles fought there, and long-dead warriors' ghosts ... not at all unlike the Dead Marshes. The fact that Tom has power over him gives evidence to his "relevance" outside his own - er - "poem-reality".
I've noticed here at BD that as soon as someone begins to speculate about Tolkien's Middle Earth based on their own personal likes, dislikes, beliefs, and values, the topics seem to, as it were, float up from the groundedness Tolkien has given all of Middle Earth, to become disembodied effluvia that just don't ring true,
for me, to Tolkien's Middle Earth. Maybe that's another way of saying which side of the "canonicity" debate I'm on.
That said, I think there is great virtue in what you say about the indefinability of Tom and Goldberry. Nevertheless, I will still point out traits I see, such as the Trickster, when they occur to me, as you are, of course, also entitled to do.
