Forest of Dark Dreams
If you drive along the Suwannee Sill bordering the west side of the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge you come to a spillway and parking area with a kayak launch. Walk south west along the shoreline of the Suwanee River and you notice that the trees (nyssa ogeche or Ogeche Lime) are curiously deformed, almost grotesque in their twisted, tortured shapes, some seeming to grow out of a each other, grafted, transplanted, half dead/half alive. The water level was low, so I could make my way among the roots and fallen branches, through the mud and muck, decaying leaves, flies buzzing about, the still black water with no signs of life except for an alligator slowing drifting like a piece of wood. The sky was cloudy and dark, the air was calm. As I made my way deeper into the woods I envisioned Hieronymus Bosch's painting Garden of Earthly Delights (panel of Hell), where the tortured souls were engaging in depravity and lust.
Hieronymus Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights, c. 1480-1505
Panel of hell (detail), Hieronymus Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights, c. 1480-1505
Panel of hell (detail), Hieronymus Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights, c. 1480-1505
I could see it in these trees, the decrepit nature of their twisted embrace, gestures of perversion and uncontrolled groping. My step sank deeper into the mud, the kind of goo that doesn’t release. What I didn’t want to hear was a voice calling out to me. I started to creep myself out, so I turned around to leave, and yes, I found my way out of that forest. I’ve never experienced a natural place this. Usually trees fill me with wonder, light, and happiness. A premonition of things to come. I shall return.
November 2019.
