The fear is related to the forest, not the plants. This feeling is very old, it goes back to Roman civilization. For the Romans, the forest was the place of the “stranger”: It was in the forest that the barbarians hid. Moreover, the French word “forêt” [forest] comes from the Latin foris, which means “outside”. In English, the word “foreign” refers to what you don’t know, that which is far away. It may be due to the ecological legacy of antiquity that the tree continues to be considered a material for trade, which is not very commendable. We have remained within this fear of the forest and the desire to sell wood.
Francis Halle, A Life drawing trees, Interview with Emmanuele Coccia # 6
Why do you fear the forest?
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- But who really owns land and nature? Humans have no more self-evident rights than grass, trees, and squirrels, not to speak of fungi and bacteria. Property, the conceit that state-backed human social relations give us absolute rights over things, does not go far in the realms of land and nature, wh …
Where does Europe begin and Where does Europe end
Could the answer to this question be that Europe begins with fear?
It is fear that causes us to distance ourselves from the unknown—and, in a second step, to define ourselves as fundamentally different from the outsider. Is it fear that generates the need to protect ourselves from this imagined other, and to build borders around ourselves?
Fear begins its journey—and with it, civilization arises in opposition to the other: the forest, the foreigner. This leads to the construction of borders and other boundaries, excluding both the stranger and the wilderness from our sense of home, from our habitat.
Yet we can choose to act differently. We can ask ourselves: Is this truly what we want?
Do we really want Europe to begin—and end—with fear?
of our Imagination
