Bamboo Groves, and the Green Light Inside Them

Bamboo does not branch the way other trees do. It goes up in a single decision, and the leaves wait until the very top before they open. Standing inside a grove you are surrounded by verticals, hundreds of thin, exact lines that the eye reads as a kind of ruled paper.

The light that gets through has already been filtered twice, once by the canopy far overhead and again by the stalks themselves, so it arrives green and low and even. There is no glare to squint against, only a soft aquarium colour that seems to come from the air rather than from any one direction. Wind moves through differently here too; instead of rustling, the stalks knock against one another, a dry, hollow sound like distant wood chimes.

A photograph of bamboo tends to lose the sound and keep the geometry, which is not the worst trade. On a screen the vertical lines hold their spacing no matter how the icons are tiled over them, and the green stays cool behind whatever sits on top. It is a wallpaper that asks for nothing and quietly straightens the room.