Helen’s Reviews > The Island of Missing Trees > Status Update

There are plenty of stories about the way the leaves of a banyan tree, a relative of mine, can all of a sudden rustle in the absence of even the slightest breeze. While other trees remain motionless, when the entire universe seems to stand still, the banyan stirs and speaks. A thickening
in the air like a premonition. It is a spooky sight, should you ever see it happen.

snapshots of blissful moments, bright and glowing but long gone, like dead stars pulsing the last of their light

Most arboreal suffering is caused by humankind

Where do you start someone’s story when every life has more than one thread and what we call birth is not the only beginning, nor is death exactly an end?

May you never be able to forget.
May you go to your grave still remembering

As banks of clouds gathered in the distant sky and a shadow fell on the walls as though from the wings of a giant bird in flight

..almost transcendental, as if she were not, and had never been, confined to the limits of her body... There was something profoundly humiliating yet equally electrifying about hearing yourself scream – breaking off, breaking away, uncontrolled, unfettered, without knowing how far it would carry you, this untamed force that rose from inside.

Arriving there is what you are destined for,
But do not hurry the journey at all …

"The moon, here closer to earth, hung bright and gentle over the rooftops,
casting a vivid glow on the narrow alleys and cobblestoned streets. And yet
shadows found a way to creep through the light. Whispers of distrust and
conspiracy rippled in the dark."