its bark is worse than its bite

place: side fence of Hastings Community School, Pandora St (CAN)
mood: artistic

If you look closely enough, you'll see that the shadows cast on the tree trunks are not jet black, but a deep green. This is probably partly due to the sunlight filtering through the chlorophyl of the leaves, but mostly it's because of the light yellowish green mass that seems to be spreading its colony across the span of bark in a hostile takeover. The shadiness adds black to the natural palette and desaturates the mottled lime to a moorish moss.

And where the sunlight manages to infiltrate through the breaks in the leafy branches, the blotchy bark is illuminated and creates a nicely tinted background to contrast with the blackness of the intricate shadows.

The way the shadows are projected on the tree trunk reminds me of how a monochromatic tattoo wraps around a person's arm. Somewhat concealed by the sleeve of the leafy canopy, the tree trunk wears its shape-shifting tattoo, an artistic rendering offered by the sun.

It's a green chameleon that never looks the same twice, what with changing colours, patterns, and placements with each phase of the sun and season.