when a seed reaches farther away than the others… the tree stands alone, away from the forest…

rain… mountains… valley… river…

smoke and morning sun…

mossy bed… rest…

curious, someone observes our proceedings…

Let me tell you about the giant tree that lives by the moody river. He has been there for as long as anyone could remember. He had been there when the first camera came this deep into the mountains. In the oldest pictures too, it looks like he had already been there forever.  He is old, the river young and moody, although she too had been there for a long long time… perhaps much longer than the tree… He’d lived thorough her rage, more than just a few times. He listens to her gurgling song over and over. She is his meditation, rather his very condition of existence. What a gigantic, awesome creature! He has come to peace with her moods. Many have come to live in the cool shade of his quiet demeanour, and strong perch of his thick boughs. The wind is heavy with her fickle aspirations, but light to his moving leaves. This is not a love story. It is what it is.

We went trekking. A week in forest and mountain grasslands. It was difficult on the body, but quite enriching…