Sekvoja

Mariposa Grove nalazila se sat vremena vožnje južno od doline. Čuvar Tomas završio je svoju smjenu u podne, ali je ostavio Polly na početku staze uz tihu napomenu: "idi vidi stare."

Mariposa Grove was an hour's drive south of the valley. Ranger Tomas had gone off-duty at midday, but he had dropped Polly at the trailhead with a quiet "go see the old ones."

Stari su bili divovske sekvoje. Najveća stabla na svijetu po volumenu, iako ne najviša. Polly je čitala o njima. Nije ih razumjela. Nije, shvatila je, dok nije stala u podnožje jednog.

The old ones were giant sequoias. The biggest trees in the world by volume, though not the tallest. Polly had read about them. She had not understood them. You did not, she found, until you stood at the base of one.

Prvo što je primijetila bila je boja. Kora sekvoje nije bila smeđa. Bila je duboka, vlaknasta, gotovo hrđavo-narančasta. Izbliza je izgledala spužvasto. Sletjela je na nisku granu mlađeg stabla, možda starog četiri stotine godina, i kljunom isprobala koru. Malo je popustila pod njenim kljunom. Kora je bila gotovo pola metra debela, mekana na dodir, puna tanina. Bila je to glavna obrana stabla protiv najčešćeg neprijatelja šume: vatre.

The first thing she noticed was the colour. Sequoia bark was not brown. It was a deep, fibrous, almost rust-orange. Up close it looked spongy. She landed on a low branch of a younger tree, perhaps four hundred years old, and pecked the bark experimentally. It gave a little under her beak. The bark was nearly half a metre thick, soft to the touch, full of tannin. It was the tree's main defence against the forest's most regular enemy: fire.

Obitelj je prolazila stazom. Mala djevojčica je glasno rekla: "Polly, je li to papiga?" Njezin otac je rekao: "To je plišana igračka koju je netko zaboravio." Polly se nije pomaknula. Obitelj je nastavila dalje.

A family walked past on the trail. A small girl said, loudly, "Polly is that a parrot?" Her father said, "It's a stuffed animal someone forgot." Polly did not move. The family walked on.

Poletjela je uz stablo, razinu po razinu, kao da se penje na zgradu. Na otprilike trideset metara visine počele su grane. Izlazile su gotovo vodoravno, debele kao njezin vlastiti trup, i nastavljale se deset metara od debla prije nego što bi se suzile. Sletjela je na jednu i pogledala gore. Krošnja je bila još četrdeset metara iznad nje.

She flew up the side of the tree, level by level, the way she would climb a building. At about thirty metres up, the branches began. They came out almost horizontally, thick as her own torso, and they continued out from the trunk for ten metres before they tapered. She perched on one and looked up. The crown was still another forty metres above her.

Staza je kružila kroz gaj i završavala kod jednog stabla posebno. Grizzly Giant. Star oko 2.995 godina, koliko je itko mogao procijeniti. Najveća sekvoja u ovom gaju i jedna od najvećih na svijetu. Polly je poletjela prema njemu.

The trail looped through the grove and ended at one tree in particular. The Grizzly Giant. About 2,995 years old as best as anyone could tell. The largest sequoia in this grove and one of the largest in the world. Polly flew to it.

Njegovo deblo u podnožju bilo je šire od gradskog autobusa. Najniža grana sama je bila veličine potpuno odraslog hrasta. Polly je sletjela na nisku izraslinu u kori. Odatle je pogledala gore. Gore. Gore.

Its trunk at the base was wider than a city bus. The lowest branch alone was the size of a fully grown oak. Polly perched on a low burl in the bark. From there she looked up. Up. Up.

Tri tisuće godina. Stablo je bilo ovdje kad su egipatski faraoni gradili Dolinu kraljeva. Bilo je ovdje kad je Rim bio malo poljoprivredno selo. Bilo je ovdje kad je završavalo brončano doba. Raslo je otprilike jedan centimetar radijusa debla godišnje, u tihoj postojanosti.

Three thousand years. The tree had been here when Egyptian pharaohs were building the Valley of the Kings. It had been here when Rome was a small farming village. It had been here when the Bronze Age was ending. It had grown roughly one centimetre of trunk radius per year, on average, in steady silence.

Ostala je dugo. Mali ožiljak od vatre na jednoj strani debla bio je stariji od većine zemalja. Stablo je preživjelo desetke požara u svom životu, svaki je ostavio svoj trag, a zatim je bio prekriven novim rastom. Kora se zatvarala oko opeklina kao što se ljudska koža zatvara oko starih posjekotina.

She stayed a long time. A small fire scar on one side of the trunk was older than most countries. The tree had survived dozens of fires in its life, each one leaving its mark and then being healed over by new growth. The bark closed around the burns the way human skin closes around old cuts.

Sjemenka veličine zrna zobi pala je pokraj nje u mirnom zraku. Promatrala ju je kako pada. Sjemenke sekvoje trebaju vatru da bi proklijale. Češeri se otvaraju samo na toplini. Svaka generacija ovih stabala rezultat je starog požara.

A seed about the size of an oat flake fell past her in the still air. She watched it go. Sequoia seeds need fire to germinate. The cones only open in the heat. Every generation of these trees is the result of an old burn.

Sunce se pomaknulo za centimetar. Ona se još nije pomaknula. Grizzly Giant još je nije primijetio. Sviđalo joj se to.

The sun moved an inch. She still had not moved. The Grizzly Giant had still not noticed her. She liked that.