Spiral Twig

This corkscrewed vine once grew around another stem in a jungle where it seemed that nothing needed to touch the ground at all – where great trees supported life aloft. Capuchin monkeys and kudamundis made their way through the canopy in three dimensions as easily as I walked through the maze of tiny islands in the granite canyon below.

I explored the jungle through my lens at every scale, but I found it most fascinating up close. In the leaf litter, there were treasures, and in the spinning pool reflections, secrets. I spent long afternoons and evenings in this canyon, enjoying the rush of the changing air, feeling the rough rock and fibrous bark, listening to the roar of the cicadas. I felt at home in a new place.

I made this photograph late in the evening while I waited for the hot light to fade dim. I like the shallow focus and the sense of mystery, and how athletic and tough the vine looks – as though it might stretch and untwist, might creak and spin, but would never break.