"I'm trying to print all the files and directories..."

Someone else did it already for you:

#!/usr/bin/env perl

use strict;
use warnings;
use IO::All;
use feature qw(say);

my $dir = shift || q(.);

my $io = io($dir);

say for $io->all(0);
[download]

See also IO::All and File::Find::Rule.

Regards, Karl