Supple

I wouldn’t usually think of the word “supple” to describe a tree’s trunk or its bark. Those elements are slow growing and pretty static. And yet I see characteristics that portray a supple, if not sinuous, growth in the upper right quadrant of this image. Of course, what is more supple than a slender birch, giving way in the wind. But here, this yew tree, with its many trunks, some of quite a significant diameter, is not supple in that way, at least not at its base.

The suppleness I see is more mysterious, at least to me. It appears to have developed slowly, in response to something in its environment, something that caused it to be advantageous to change the direction of growth over the course of time, perhaps years.

Now I would reach for an analogy to humans but nothing comes to me. Perhaps it’s sufficient to just notice this growth pattern and observe that there are various ways to define flexibility and suppleness. And that if we can think flexibly about whatever forms or textures we see or imagine in the bark of a tree, it may provide us some insight, either about the tree or about ourselves.