How do you perceive Tom Bombadil?

[Aaron]

Originally Posted by Faramir Jones

He then called the Forest 'queer'. Everything there is 'much more alive, more aware of what is going on' than in the Shire. The trees 'do not like strangers. They watch you'.

That right there is a big part of why I am so skeptical of Tom's nature. I mean, isn't the Old Forest his land? He has some degree of mastery over it, enough so that his incantations can lull the trees to sleep.
But as master of the Forest, why are the trees so bitter and angry, when Tom is so happy and carefree? I think that really helped shape my own perceptions of the character, as those chapters in the Forest and the Barrow Downs held an overwhelming sense of unease, and Tom only exacerbated that feeling because of how disarmingly jovial he was.