Tree Barks and Watermarks (Day 7)

I am amazed by the old trees. Their bark mimics water patterns. I can trace ripples on their branches and the gnarled bark swells into knots as if a pebble has been thrown right into the trunk. The grooves and ridges undulate like a breeze over a lake or the sand as the tide turns.
A tree is like a vertical river and, like humans, they breathe out water into the air.
The amount of water a tree can hold and utilise varies greatly depending on its size, species, and environmental conditions. For example, willow trees can absorb 40 gallons of water a day, while a mature oak tree is able to absorb more than 109 gallons daily. That is an average of 40,000 gallons of water in a year. Water enters the roots through osmosis and travels up the tree bark, carrying nutrients with it. To the leaves where much of the water is released back into the atmosphere.
Tree bark is yet another reminder of the universal presence of water in all that exists, spiralling out and mimicking itself in the things it creates and sustains.

Watercolour and pen on paper