I have found myself lately becoming more and more fascinated by trees, those immense deeply rooted living beings that bind our biosphere together, that connect the earth to the sky, that come into leaf and flower with the seasons, that bloom in impossible colours in spring and summer, that reach for the sun, that in some cases witness generations of the drama of human life – wars, love, life, birth, and death. If an ancient tree could talk, what stories would they tell? Do they in fact speak – to each other? Do they have whispered conversations in a register outside the narrow band of human existence? Do their roots intertwine in a separate community, a separate universe below the surface of the earth, of which we know nothing?

Unfortunately I did not manage to see the giant sequoia Sequoiadendron giganteum of the Sierra Nevada – the largest tree in the world. I also never got to see the giant redwoods Sequoia sempervirens of California.

But I was fortunate to see ancient cypresses in California, at Point Lobos. And in my travels in Asia, and briefly in Hawaii, I have been fascinated by raintrees, and giant ficus trees which can live for hundreds of years.

Here in this gallery I share just some of the pictures I have taken of trees in recent years. Some are in deep forest, some in parks, and some are roadside giants (the latter particularly in Asia). Some were old before I was born; many will live – if we allow them – to see generations after I have gone. I haven’t captioned them. They don’t need captions. Just breathe, and imagine the therapy of Japanese forest bathing, shinrin-yoku, immersion in the forest.

And imagine the wisdom of these trees.