Intelligent tree, 2012
Acrylics on paper
Private collection, Rossiglione, Italy

Said the traveller to the wise man, “That tree at the top of the rock, where there is little soil and no rain for three months, and where it is battered by salty wind and burning sun, it lives every day, and transpires. But from where does it get the water it needs?”

Said the wise man to the traveller, “In nature, for every path that you see, there are another hundred invisible to man, and the tree knows those paths better than you ever shall. And it probes the crevices around it in an incessant voyage of discovery.”

Asked the traveller, “So what can I learn from that tree?”

Said the wise man, “When you journey, the experience is what lies around you. So savour all that you find, the people, the plants, the symphony of wind and waves, the fragrance of the breeze and the colour of the sky.
“The destination is nothing, and neither the distance, because the journey of understanding begins and ends wherever you are. And that, my friend, is the voyage of the tree.”
(Text by Henry with apologies to Khalil Gibran)

I have always been amazed to see trees growing right at the top of a hill or mountain, and surviving even through summer months where in Italy rainfall is virtually zero. Where do trees, which have to transpire litres and litres of water every day just to survive, find their supplies? The only explanation that I can think of is that there are paths of water underground that people cannot fathom or even expect, but that trees can find and use for their survival.