Expanding environmentalism through provocative conversation and the arts. 
(with interjections from my grandfather)
In a small town up the breast of the uppermost land mound there is a land of Seven Corners where - They do - there are seven men who…
In the light I whisper promises,
Carried by the winds,
As they echoed softly in the moonlit sky.
I speak of my sorrows and plead my case,
I shatter and break in that endless space.
In between the …
May a man look up from the utter hardship of his life and say: let me be like these.
Hölderlin, In Lovely Blue.
1 Circa 1400 BCE. An olive tree in Vouvés, Crete. From ‘vouvismos’ meaning the whispering of the …
Originally published 3/7/23 on https://isabelavalencia.com/a-lesson-from-ancient-polylepis-trees/
A couple weeks ago, I wandered the Polylepis forest in the Chimborazo Park Reserve. After a two-hour trek through the sandy trail, passing by vicuna animals and native Andean shrubs, I saw the entrance. The …