Since I’ve been home, I have been studying our staunch New England trees. Having spent two weeks in Oahu admiring so many different and exotic trees and flowers, our oaks, pines and maples seem pretty tame. Our trees have an austere and slightly admonishing look to them; no flowers, no elegantly twisted trunks and vines for them! They are tall and severe and brook no fripperies or foolishness.

In Hawaii, there are trees and vines and flowers that make you feel as if you are in the Garden of Eden. The greenery is opulent and luxurious, and the trees and flowers are as lovely as runway models. They are gorgeous and they know it. I took more pictures of roots and trees and flowers and vines than anything else.

I often wonder that, if trees could meet and talk with each other, what would they say? Would our dour, sturdy New England trees pontificate about purpose vs. beauty and strength vs. indolence? Would the Hawaiian trees talk about how beauty lightens the soul, and how just being lovely is a gift to mankind?

Wouldn’t that be a conversation?

Coconut palm

Plumeria (Frangipani)

Butterfly ginger

Kukui tree

Koa tree