13 May 2019

THE CHISEL OF TIME

It's been a long time since my grandfather "BEPI", who was a woodworker in Comasine (a small village in Val di Pejo), made me discover the majestic trees of the Val Comasine (it was 1975).

Only with a very careful look you can notice the presence of some trees that stand out among the others, because they are bigger and darker. Their silhouettes are almost black, with light and bright foliage, with different colours according to the season. Their bodies are carved by the time, beated by the weather (we had an example of it this year), fed by a not always fertile land, loaded with snow during the long winters.

However, those "pioneers" have lasted for years, or rather centuries. Theirs is a long life story, through tree-men and stones, whose fates are linked together in time (dendrochronology comes from Greek dendron = tree and chronos= time).

Unfortunately, everyday's frenzy and stress are stealing our time; city's noises and distractions are drifting us apart and covering our feelings. We don't have time anymore to taste those things, especially the nature that surrounds us.

So I swim upstream: I want to stimulate your hearts and feelings. Open yourselves to nature's affections. This is why, when I accompain the Monroc people, I suggest to slow down, to stay in silence and to listen to the forest's voice: everytime we can hear a kind of WHISPER...

I wait for you in our excursion, I want to introduce to you a friend of mine that doesn't want to hide its wrinkles, on the contrary it is proud of them and it will show us through its fronds, trunk and branches how beautiful and wise the old age is.

Nothing will be albe to distract us, because we will be in front of the OLD LARCH.