The Humanization of Trees

 

 Ficus trail. Photo by Myriam Mahiques, personal archives. 2016

 My father had a farm where we used to go every weekend. Just before taking the rural road, the route would welcome us with a trees on both sides, so big, that they created a tunnel.

I was always attached to trees, I am a sort of “tree hugger” and this view was a happy one in my childish mind. They were perennial, so the welcome “expression” was the same all year long.

As an adult, I like to walk along trees trails, especially if they are huge and textured. I took these pictures at the Fullerton Arboretum, in 2016. I love those Summer textures with shadows, leaves and roots across the path.

But it’s all about perception. I posted one of the pictures on my IG account and @fullertonarboretum did not recognize the scene. It means they see the trees and I see the art, like an abstract.

There could be a contrary effect for others. The oppression, the overwhelming feeling, the disquietude and anxiety produced by the scale surrounding us.

From the short book “The Willows, by Algernon Blackwood”, here is the character’s description of the weeping willows in an island, to the point they are humanized or rather alienized:

 Ficus trail. Photo by Myriam Mahiques, personal archives. 2016

  “There they stood in the moonlight, like a vast army surrounding our camp, shaking their innumerable silver spears defiantly, formed all ready for an attack.(…..)

Strange thoughts like these, bizarre fancies, borne I know not whence, found lodgment in my mind as I stood listening. What, I thought, if, after all, these crouching willows proved to be alive; if suddenly they should rise up, like a swarm of living creatures, marshaled by the gods whose territory we had invaded, sweep towards us off the vast swamps, booming overhead in the night—and then settle down! As I looked it was so easy to imagine they actually moved, crept nearer, retreated a little, huddled together in masses, hostile, waiting for the great wind that should finally start them a-running. I could have sworn their aspect changed a little, and their ranks deepened and pressed more closely together.”

In this text, the territory belongs to the willows and humans are invaders: such an interesting thought.

Read the book on line:

http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/11438/pg11438-images.html

 Ficus trail. Photo by Myriam Mahiques, personal archives. 2016