I AM THE KARRI FOREST OF BORANUP
You can hide well in me. It’s not far from one tree trunk to another. Animals love to do that, mostly to escape the gazes and telescopic eyes of predators. Most times, animals hide from each other, unlike birds who pertly mark out their territory with loud chirps and calls. Insects just love it here. They do all kinds of things: flying, crawling, jumping, and even eating their way under my bark. Ouch! Stop! Listen up, all of you! This is our forest! We are the Karri trees, and if you let us, we will grow... and grow... and we will grow, higher... and higher... and even higher. Before people cut down my dear relative in Victoria, she was by far the tallest and most beautiful tree in the world. Now, she no longer exists. Just relics of her remain: as flooring boards, benches, and tabletops in established people’s homes.
Sometimes, it is fire that fells us, not the human hand. We know fire well, though, and have adapted to its ways over the years.
We just naturally start growing all over again, resembling in our determination the figure of your own myths whose destiny it is to push that heavy stone back up the mountain, only for it to roll all the way down again. We share the same fate: to start from the beginning over and over again.
Many a man has lost his way in our forest. The labyrinth of our trunks can be confusing, and things often go missing. A pair of old boots are still standing here at my feet. Now ferns tie up the leather sides and grass grows out from the tops. They too have now hidden themselves. Maybe the “boot man” just climbed up looking for an overview and perhaps a way out.
For us trees here, anything inside the forest is good. Only from the outside comes real danger, like the saws with their sharp teeth that cut deep into the heart of our flesh. Now I have an idea! If we Karri trees all stand very close to each other... if we direct the eyes of the humans away... and lead them in all other directions... then, we ourselves could hide. Completely unseen to mankind, my brothers and sisters would have a chance to grow as tall and as beautiful as our kin of foregone days.
Home:
Australia, South West Region, Leeuwin-Naturaliste National Park, Boranup Karri Forest
Tree species:
Eucalyptus diversicolor
Tree family:
Myrtaceae, myrtle
Common Names:
Karri
Motivation:
There is a primordial magic inherent in this corner of the world. Pure nature – as if from a bygone era. We hiked through the Boranup forest and almost lost our way. If you look longer into the forest, you have the sensation of becoming one with it. We would have liked to trek deeper in, but I wonder if we would have come out again.