Trees have always had a powerful hold on the human imagination and their symbolism is manifold. Their mute but solid presence is at once soothing and awe-inspiring, because they challenge what is for us the ultimate, clear-cut and irreversible frontier, that between life and death.
I was just reading this wonderful book on the anthropology of trees, when I came upon a seemingly commonsensical view which set me thinking. The author argues that trees do not have a 'natural' life-span like animals, and that many species take as long to decline as to grow. Above all, trees call into question the perception that a live body is warm, while a dead one is stiff and cold. Trees may live a long, long life, but in fact they start dying while keeping on living; the trunk of a tree may be intensely alive, yet it is composed of a mixture of dead and live tissues.
It is interesting indeed to note the contrast between the uncertain status of trees as living organisms and how they have been seen, since times immemorial, as symbols of life. But this is certainly not a contradiction, pointing instead to the ultimate mystery of life and its closeness to death. Both are everywhere, everyday - and we too, like trees, start dying while keeping on living.
A soothing and awe-inspiring truth that Davood Emdadian captured as few painters before him had.
Image: Davood Emdadian, Arbored.
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