5th April 2022
The Mediterranean cypress – cupressus sempervirens – is an evergreen coniferous tree that grows to a height of 35m and can live for 1000 years and more. It is well adapted to the Mediterranean climate of hot dry summers and cool winters, and grows across a wide altitude range from sea level to around 2000m. The wood is fragrant and durable and is used for making harpsichords, coffins and furniture. It was also used to make the doors of St Peter’s basilica in Rome. In classic antiquity the cypress was associated with mourning and death. However when Van Gogh painted cypresses he saw them as trees that linked earth and heaven.
And Jacob dreamed that there was a ladder set up on earth, the top of it reaching to heaven; and the angles of God were ascending and descending on it. Genesis 28:12
My soul can find no staircase to heaven unless it be through earth’s loveliness. Michelangelo
The Green Tau 