Rewilding
For the Love of Wildness
Embracing nature in the modern world
October, and the leaves hissed in the canopy above, like gravel on the seashore. The creaking and groaning of the larger boughs spoke of a restlessness in the air that had replaced the sleepy days of summer.
Even down on the woodland floor, the occasional gust lifted my hair, and the constant fall of leaves was like a rain of fire.
I stood and surveyed my work, bent to make a minor adjustment, then stood again and stepped back. I knew the mosaic of coloured leaves I’d been creating for the past while (time meant less in those days) would not last out the coming storm, but maybe it would remain long enough for a fellow walker in these woods to come across it with surprise and delight, a memory to help make their day.
If not, and subtly graded array of golden and crimson leaves, winding like a dragon between the tree roots, was whipped away in the wind before another human eye could see it, so be it. It didn’t matter.
The value of this art was in its creation, not its permanence.
I was inspired, of course, by the work of Andy Goldsworthy, who’s sculptures of leaves, twigs, stones and even icicles adorned the glossy pages of a large ‘coffee table’ book I had at home.
