| Redwoods
"The redwood, once seen, leaves a mark
or create a vision that stays with you always. No one has
ever successfully painted or photographed a redwood tree.
The feeling they produce is not transferable. From them
comes silence and awe. It's not only their unbelievable
stature, nor the color which seems to shift and vary under
your eyes, no, they are not like any trees we know, they are
ambassadors from another time. They have the mystery of
ferns that disappeared a million years ago into the coal of
the carboniferous era. They carry their own light and
shade. The vainest, most slap-happy and irreverent of men,
in the presence of redwoods, goes under the spell of wonder
and respect. Respect - that's the word. One feels the need
to bow to unquestioned sovereigns. I have known these great
ones since my early childhood, have lived among them, camped
and slept against their warm monster bodies, and no amount
of association has bred contempt in me. " |
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