This is the future forest giant under whose shade poets, lovers and idlers will lie.
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In its branches, the nightingale will regale the forest and from its Stygian crevices, the bats will emerge to hawk the night airs.
Its first year around the sun is almost complete and it has avoided the grazers and the careless boot of man.
By this time next year, this sprout will be casting its own deep shade and will have started a thousand year cycle of providing for and modifying this ecology.
Photo: Cork Oak seedling at Los Tornos. Courtesy of the author.