green
only God can make a tree. i love the quote. my friend rick introduced me to it one day in penang as we studied a beautiful casuarina with a wide canopy. when i can get quiet and alone and be out in nature i love to watch trees. the best way is to prop yourself afloat at the side of a pool, ankles your anchor to the pool deck while your body floats, the surface tension of the liquid pressed against your skin, ears submerged so there is near silence. and then to look.
i have a favourite tree in the botanical gardens in penang, malaysia. i look forward to visiting the island in a few weeks. when i lived in penang, every once in awhile i would drive my scooter out to the park in the morning, find my tree at the top of the hill overlooking so much of the gardens and sit in one of its boughs. watch ants busy at work frantically crawl about, come within hair-widths of the new tree inhabitant then do an about face and move away. observe the way the branches stretched and reaching for the sky, wondering at the direction of their growth, almost able to hear the coaxing voice from above whisper encouragement. think about what it means for a single leaf to fall, the changing seasons, life, fruit, pruning, growth.
we can learn a lot from trees. from nature.
i'm reminded of a poem i wrote in mongolia after enduring and surviving a plague of moths that blew into the capital, ulan bataar, from over the gobi. i was disgusted by the creatures, they got into everything, laid sacks of eggs, fluttered and died. but i was amazed at their stubborn pursuit of light. in response i wrote this poem.
nature speaks
nature speaks
the earth grows a voice in me
I am older for hearing it
“learn the lesson of the
moth
seek light”
nature speaks
I ask it questions
“learn the lesson of the
shell
listen”
nature speaks
words are not an obstacle
it walks through them
“learn the lesson of the
beast
bear your burden”
nature speaks
it consoles me
“learn the lesson of the
eagle
fly”
nature speaks
it wastes no time in words
“learn the lesson of the
seed
die”
. words and images copyright © andrew kooman 2006 .