The question is: is this tree being washed away or washed ashore?
On the island of Gili Meno, Indonesia, there is a short stretch of beach where a dozen or so trees seem to be clinging on to life not being able to choose between land or sea. Taking a long exposure results in milky sea and blurred movement of the leaves and branches.
A view on jungle vegatation on the island of Bali.
Imagine yourself a solitary mangrove tree a few feet from the shore line, a slowly incoming tide, a clear nightsky with thousands of stars and a building site behind you with a security light aimed straight at your tree. This was the setting for this picture I took somewhere on the northern coast of Bali.
The tree for me symbolizes the struggle that nature has against the encroaching species called humans. Even here on Bali. The fact that only half of the tree has leaves is quite ominous... I imagine that this part of the coast was previously an extensive mangrove forest. Now all is cleared, the beaches and the coral reefs a little further away are used by tourists and the land directly next to the beach is being steadily filled by extensive hotels.
The building site behind me, admittedly convenient for this picture, is a next slice of the cake that is being cut off from the original cake called nature.
A long exposure.
This tree is perhaps one of the 'highlights' of my travels over Bali last month. It is a sad remnant of a mangrove-forest on the northern shores of the island. The beach seemed to be cleared for tourism, as just next to this spot holiday bungalows were being built. I spent a few hours here to take some long exposure pictures of it. This is one from a series I shot in broad daylight. Tomorrow I will post a picture I took at midnight when the tide was out.