Many of my robed brothers in cloistersto the south dwell beneath the shade of bay trees.I see how their Madonnas look so utterly human, And dream of Titan’s paintings,how God glows in them like embers.But when I settle into my own soulI know my God is dark and like a clump of a hundred rootsdrinking silently.I lift myself from His warmth;more than this I don’t know, for my branches rest in the depths and sway gently in the winds.(Rilke)
Yakushima, one of Japan’s southernmost islands before the Okinawa archipelago, has been settled since the Jomon period (14,000-300 B.C.). Today, much of the island, whose inland is thickly wooded, is protected by Unesco, its forests undisturbed by commercial activity.Credit…Chrystel Lebas
The Fugitive Stag 