The matrix of the world. The original life that generates death, ovulation, fertilization, hatching, perpetual fermentation. A jumble of juicy sap vines, drooling leaves, slimy bark, rubbery tentacles bristling with thorns. A warm and feverish air, greenish, saturated with smells that lift the heart, rotting like dead water under the screed of tall petrified trees. Life and death embraced in a furious, repulsive copulation. Life and death and life and life and the..... A tragic conflagration. Life! - L'Adieu au roi, Pierre Shoendoerffer, Bernard Grasset Publishing, 1969 -