« Starry, scary night | Main | The Garden of Remembrance »
November 22, 2009
The Boabab Tree
I spent a week recently on holiday in Wales and enjoyed my own mini retreat. I have been reading Barack Obama's first autobiography "Dreams from my father". In it he writes about his trip to Kenya where his father was born and lived much of his life. His reflections on the boabab tree really spoke to me:
"each tree seemed to possess a character, a character neither benevolent nor cruel but simply enduring, with secrets whose depths I would never plumb, a wisdom I would never pierce. They both disturbed and comforted me, those trees that looked as if they might uproot themselves and simply walk away, were it not for the knowledge that on this earth one place is not so different from another - the knowledge that one moment carries within it all that's gone on before."
Anyone who has been to that part of Africa will know the striking Boabab tree. My grandmother had a painting of one hanging in her flat which she commissioned to remind her of my aunt, uncle and cousins who live in Zambia. I remember the painting as a child. A strange tree that looks as if it is growing upside down. Its branches like roots growing up to the sky. Only when I stood under one in Zambia did I appreciate their size, the massive trunk, and experience that sense that they had witnessed much and would remain long after we have moved on.
Posted by Anna Dixon at November 22, 2009 11:24 AM