The pine trees are whispering in huddles, conspiring to throw us out. For centuries they’ve heard of the sieges of Poliorcetes and his ilk – the whole confounded human race pretty much, yet they stay stoic and beautiful in the Mediterranean heat, frugal but splendrous in their plumage as they dot the Rhodian landscape.
Researchers have found Europe’s oldest resident, Adonis. Not the Greek God but a 1075-year-old pine or Pinus heldreichii, found in the Pindos mountains in northern Greece. (Source http://mentalfloss.com/article/85039/europes-oldest-living-resident-pine-tree-greece). As a seedling Adonis saw the Vikings in their rage. He knew then the human race was destined for greatness.
The earth burns yet they stand here Zen like Cézanne’s Great Pine as they rise up twisted in axis towards the skies, waiting for the apocalypse.
