Sand Forest

Warm and dry but shifting underfoot.
This land used to be sea-bed but within the last hundred years it has been reclaimed, drained, and planted as new forest.
It is littered with white sea-shells and dark pine-needles, both of which can slide between the toes and pierce the skin.
Beyond the young trees lies a stretch of shallow water reflecting the summer sky and enclosed by the perfect line of a dike.
There are few sounds here - just the occasional bird, or a distant car passing along the elevated road.

Everything is geometrically regular:
the water is at a constant depth of one metre;
the dike is exactly the same width and height all the way along;
the trees are equidistant and of the same species, although nature has created some variety of size.

Everywhere you see only verticals, horizontals, and the spaces in between.
A geometry of newness and calm.

on

Sand Forest

Warm and dry but shifting underfoot.
This land used to be sea-bed but within the last hundred years it has been reclaimed, drained, and planted as new forest.
It is littered with white sea-shells and dark pine-needles, both of which can slide between the toes and pierce the skin.
Beyond the young trees lies a stretch of shallow water reflecting the summer sky and enclosed by the perfect line of a dike.
There are few sounds here - just the occasional bird, or a distant car passing along the elevated road.

Everything is geometrically regular:
the water is at a constant depth of one metre;
the dike is exactly the same width and height all the way along;
the trees are equidistant and of the same species, although nature has created some variety of size.

Everywhere you see only verticals, horizontals, and the spaces in between.
A geometry of newness and calm.

on