Karoliena
“She wound the … rope … around her body under her arms. Then one around her waist. She started tearing off twigs from the stinkwood branches, pushing them under the ropes until she had a body made of leaves and felt as if she was standing inside a tree. A magic tree. A stinkwood tree, with eyes that could see from deep inside. A tree that started walking slowly along the footpath into Kom’s Bush. A human being concealed in a leafy refuge; nothing could touch her. She was alone, free. She was a tree with a new spirit. A human-tree. As she walked further into the world of the forest, a peace grew slowly inside her. The frogs did not stop their calling when she approached. The other trees looked in awe at the tree with feet. A little blue buck ram did not dart away in fright; only tiptoed towards its next morsel of food. A lourie’s nest cleverly disguised in old man’s beard stolen from a tree, had been shaken out of a red alder. It was empty. A tiny doublecollared sunbird hovered with fluttering wings in front of a wild pomegranate flower, sipping up the sweetness inside the hollow little flower – it was the smallest bird in the forest. Somewhere above her a bush-lourie called inquisitively from the forest roof.” - Dreamforest, by Dalene Matthee
I’ve just finished reading Dreamforest by Dalene Matthee. It is my favourite of her four forest books and I highly recommend it.
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