All Souls' Day Contemplation
I find two trees entwined in a wood, past the chestnuts littering the forest floor like nature’s prickly confetti. At first glance, they appear as one tree split in half at the base, but they grow apart as they seek sunlight. Only digging up their roots could prove trunk autonomy.
This tree of twos is labeled 5–5–9, and its number is printed on a small green square and nailed to the tree just above arm’s reach. This is not an unruly forest but the curated nature of a Berlin park, dotted with cigarette butts, discarded bottles, and fences that are largely disregarded by a nature-hungry public.
Berlin Ploetzensee Park tree number 5–5–9 started growing together, melding and fusing in an embrace of fibers. A kiss of wood meeting wood, the loving structure of lignin supporting branches further up where the two trunks part and one side turns away, as the other reaches out towards its partner, filling the gap. They need space to brea…
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