Maria Gianferrari wanted to write a book about trees that brought together science and poetry. She ended up creating a text that is a true love letter to these beings that rise from the earth, reach out to the sun and link their roots underground.
be a tree it is an invitation to contemplate nature and ourselves. The comparison between the branches and our arms; the roots, “let your roots get tangled up in the ground to hold you down”; the trunk, “which gives you form”; the cup, “which carries your food”; the bark, our skin, “protects your inside, although dead on the outside”; the various layers of sapwood (the inner part of the bark of trees), “which transports nutrients, helping you to get bigger and taller”; the core, “strong as bone, to sustain you.” Finally, the marrow, “the guardian of nutrients from the beginning of your days”.
After all these observations and comparisons, the author tells us: “Look at you: branches and leaves above, roots below and the trunk in the middle. you are a tree.” To then remember that we are not alone. “You are a tree among many.”
The analogy continues with the communication, sharing, protection and help that trees maintain among themselves and of how they are “shelter and home for birds, mammals and insects”.
Gianferrari also remembers how a tree, like us, is vulnerable far from its natural habitat. “But together in a forest, trees are strong.” To conclude: “One family, one community, one country, one universe. There is enough for everyone.”
Final thought: “Be a tree. Because together we are a forest.”
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Vegetarian and fascinated with what is happening under the earth, far from our eyes, she calls the “Wood Wide Web” the exchanges of energy, information and nutrients that take place in forests, gardens or anywhere there are trees.
He grew up in Keene, New Hampshire (USA), and the family owned a farmhouse with a barn garage facing Mount Monadnock. Playing in the field is part of her most distant and happiest memories: “You might say I’m crazy, but I still love the pungent smell of cow and chicken dung. I used to play outside all day, climb trees, catch frogs, watch birds and dig holes in the earth to find clay..”
Now lives in Massachusetts. In addition to trees, she is very fond of dogs, protagonists of several of his books. In this one, she was lucky enough to be accompanied by the already highly awarded illustrator Felicita Sala, of Italian origin, but who grew up in Australia.
draw memories
Despite having a degree in Philosophy, Felicita had the desire to “live as an artist”, but she thought for a long time that it would not be possible. She until she returned to Europe and realized the artistic quality of many picture books and decided that this was a possible path. He was. She already lives in Italy again.
In a conversation posted on YouTube by Toadstool Bookshop, he says that it took him a few months to finish this book. “Didn’t want it to be all green and brown”, since it is immediately what one imagines when one thinks of trees. He investigated, looked for as wide a variety of trees as possible, and tried to mirror what the text suggested: “The wind, the seeds, the roots, the earth.” He also drew on his Australian memories.
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As usual, he used watercolors and colored pencils. “I don’t really know what I’m doing until it’s done. I like to improvise. the trunk [da imagem da capa] it was painted in watercolor, but then I drew over it with colored pencils.” He created several layers (“layers”) until you get the effect you like. And us too.
One of the trees that he finds most impressive is reproduced here, “the blue tree”. And he really liked having children climb the branches “with colorful clothes, as if they were confetti”.
Tall pines are her favorite trees because they take her back to childhood, as there are plenty of them in Italian city parks. Some Australian trees, “with soft skin, reminiscent of human skin”, also enchant her. They are a species of eucalyptus, the one that takes the leaves and smells, whenever he finds them. To remember her family and feel closer to her.
“Together we are a forest.” Let’s be then.
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