Page 44 - BSAM 2018 Q2

Can Bonsai Bring Us Closer to Nature?
Root Over Rock Trident Maple, Acer buergerianum, on display at Castello della Rovere 2016 (11 years since the beginning of the work) Tokoname bonsai pot
Walking in nature implies leaving the built world behind and therefore renouncing the comforts offered by it for mobility. Walking in nature means abandoning the
comforts of a house or a garden. Walking in nature means facing unexpected events. How many other adventures await us there? Several, I believe!
Walking in the nature, as we all know, means above all that we can move in full freedom to find the rhythms and sensations more suited to our
human nature; that psycho-physical balance that is increasingly threatened by modern life.
The only “passport” that nature asks of us is to accept it as is, without upsetting its balance. Nature presents itself to us in many forms: water, rocks, trees, animals, snow, wind, storms, silence... and anything else we can easily discover. In our balance with it we must accept all these forms and live with them. In this acceptance we find ourselves and fulfil our role, like the elements, which form part of nature itself.
42 | BCI | April/May/June 2018
One of the forms that nature presents is the tree with exposed roots clinging to rock (Sekijoju). Walking through hills or low mountains, we can see trees with their roots exposed, clinging to rocks that then plunge into the sediment or soil from which they draw the bare minimum necessary for their survival.