"An Oak tree is a daily reminder that great things often have small beginnings."
― Matshona Dhliwayo
The smell of jasmine flowers and blossoming orange trees fill up the air. The spring sun is warming up naked skin, licked by still cold tongues of oceanic breeze. So here we are, in an Algarvian village, Southern Portugal. We took the last chance to travel before everything got closed and left our home city, beautiful Porto.
If we would turn off our phones, computer and not bother to listen to the radio every morning, then ignore the newspapers left on the threshold by still working postmen we could feel like we were on the dream vacation. Because after the mess of the city, after all the straight lines of the buildings, streets and bridges there is nothing more soothing than the curves of nature.
But the reality is quite different. The world has changed totally as most of the countries are under the lockdown caused by the virus. The life-threatening, unknown, dangerous virus that does not know borders or the rules of modern societies.
The order seems to be falling apart. The world could no longer go in the direction it was. Nothing is certain, neither life nor the future nor economical security after the virus.
To remain sane, as there is nothing more we can do, we go out to immerse ourselves in nature. We are connecting back with our natural roots by walking slowly through the forest, meadows, olive groves. Something that can be seen as a normal walk we have turned into a continuous bath in nature, named by the Japanese as shinrin-yoku. We breathe the natural smell of soil mixed with flowers. We hear the whispers of the wind, slowly passing through the small leaves. We feel, each of us in a different way, everything that surrounds us, focusing on being fully in this particular moment which will never repeat, never appear as the same one. We enjoy slowness. The slow life.
We pass a field full of olives, with the earth already tired of the intense southern sun. The birds are singing their different melodies, communicating between each other in the language known just to themselves. Singing the songs we can perceive as beautiful but only above our semiotic understanding. When we climb the mountain we see trees with its bark peeled off. The oaks.
It's a special kind of tree. Even though it is less majestic than the one I know from my own country, it's still full of natural, splendid enchantment in its curvy branches, often covered by moss.
Oaks are one of the most important trees for the people of Algarve and Alentejo. From their bark, since the XIX century, is produced cork - the most characteristic material of Portugal.
Cork is used obviously to create a plug for famous Portuguese wines, as it is the best and cheapest method to preserve the aroma of the wine. But this is not the only one use for this natural, yet valuable, material. It is also used to create floors, heels for shoes, handles for fishing ropes and nowadays also for modern design, accessories or even clothes*.
Getting the best cork requires slowness and patience. The first bark can be collected from the oak only 25 years after planting. It requires a lot of experience and high temperatures to collect the layer from the tree. After this, 9 years must pass before another 'harvest' will be possible. Yet, it is all worth waiting for. Cork is not only a valuable and good product. It is most importantly sourced in a very sustainable way which allows living in harmony with nature, taking its good without destroying it.
As we keep walking, revealed in front of our eyes are more and more oaks tree. Decorating the slopes of the Algarvian mountains. Creating whole oak forests in their valleys. Standing lonely in the private properties or in the middle of the meadows, where the bees, with their steady hum, pick the pollen from the wildflowers.
Even if we, people, stopped, the world is still spinning. Continuing its long-lasting beauty, rebuilding what can be recovered and reminding that nature will exist still and even better without us. Not the other way around.
*Note: The dress was made by Ana Eusébio. For more check her Instagram here.
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