Tree of Lightness I'm reading Calvino's chapter on Lightness and see an eucalpytus tree by the roadside that stops me cold. Branches and leaves so sparse that it appears porous and thin as gauze— lighter than the clouds above it and the street lamplight beside it there's something strange about this Tree of Lightness almost like some parachute descending from heaven to root itself here on earth or a hot-air balloon whisking me off to another world. — Peter Y. Chou     Mountain View, 1-9-2010

Eucalyptus Tree Foothill College, Los Altos Hills