My third reading of Mauro Corona is "Le voci del bosco" which when translated means "The voices of the forests". In the book, the author describes how he sees and feels trees, whom he has a personal relationship with. Other than a writer, the author is a wood carver and he is greatly devoted to nature. His descriptions are subjective, assigning a distinct personality to each kind of tree as if they were as part of nature as us humans. Those feelings and memories were developed after an entire lifetime surrounded by trees, which are really special to the author.

Do not expect to get anything useful from the book. The author jumps from tree to tree following his memories and feelings, like a stream of consciousness. The olive tree is an old man carved by time and accepting his death by letting be cut easily, he is kind and generous by being easy to burn. Beeches are great and esteemed workers, they wish to rebel from their destiny but then the humans come and make tools out of them so they close in on themselves. The Spruce is a noble, and so on…

There is a great variety of trees in nature, all of them so different from the other. Each tree is good or bad for certain things like tools or decoration or for fire, some trees prefer to grow in some places rather than others, some trees are easy to cut or have a certain color that sticks out. Those and more are what makes each tree have their own personality, vices and virtues.

At the end, I learned to appreciate nature more in its variety. Now I know a things or two about trees and I will be more mindful when I meet one.

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Travel: Mauro Corona, Index