‘You have to paint the smell of the trees.’
Paul Cézanne (1839-1906)

The multiple fragrances rise up to the sky in a confused and motley cloud.
An intolerable mess.
We would like to identify them one by one and untangle the web of our feelings.
Is in our power to do so?
Is the universe so complex that we are doomed not to know the purity of things?
Perhaps with much patience, with sustained attention, by daily effort, with great rigor, we might apprehend the world down to its tiniest details, in its subtlest fragrances.
Should we curse the Creator for having placed us in the centre of the universe, or praise him for having subjected us to such a test?

Gilbert Garcin
Christmas 2007