Symbiosis of Drynaria Fern and Acacia Tree - More than Commensalism

Symbiosis of Drynaria Fern and Acacia Tree 

- More than Commensalism

Dr Abe V Rotor



Feathery Drynaria fern atop acacia tree, UST Botanical Garden  

Drynaria fern covers the limbs of an acacia tree. Tagudin, Ilocos Sur

I like the Drynaria 

I like Drynaria for her feathery foliage in the distance like the proud peacock and the turkey trotting to win favors of their flocks;

I like Drynaria for her sturdiness in the wind, cooling the summer air and keeping the coolness of the Amihan in December;

I like Drynaria for her resiliency, bending with the limbs and branches, turning upside down and up again the next season;

I like Drynaria for sleeping through the dry months while her host takes the show, verdant green, robust and free;

I like Drynaria for resurrecting from a state of torpor, as if she defies death and perpetuates life while others simply die;

I like Drynaria for her economy in sustenance, living on captured dirt and rain, yet discreet of such austere living;

I like Drynaria for touching the clouds with her host taming it to fall as rain and shared by all creatures around;

I like Drynaria for her ability to multiply fast through invisible spores, in one sweep of the wind are sown in far places;

I like Drynaria for its benevolence to many creatures, tenants and transients, keeping their brood in her bosom;

I like Drynaria giving the martinez birds a home, where it sings in joy and praise and thanksgiving for a beautiful world;

I like Drynaria for keeping company to passersby, to tired souls in the shade of its host tree at midday, and unlikely hours;

I like Drynaria for giving off oxygen and taking in carbon dioxide that poisons the earth and living things, among them no less than me;

I like Drynaria, for caring its host and vice versa through symbiosis - a perfect bond that humans have yet to learn someday. ~

Martinez birds, long thought to be extinct locally, find shelter
and home with the Drynaria, and the host acacia tree.

I am a waterfall - a drawing exercise

I am a waterfall - a drawing exercise

Dr Abe V Rotor

                                                  Waterfall mural, AVR 2009

How do you see yourself as a waterfall?

This exercise leads us to differentiate reality from imagination. Second, how can we combine reality and idealism to express ourselves?

Here is a drawing exercise suitable to both young and old, class or workshop.

As a participant draw a waterfall from your own experience and imagination. You have ten minutes to finish it on a one-fourth bond paper using pencil or pen.

A background music is provided while you work. Nature’s sound: water cascading or flowing accompanied by songs of birds and other creatures, and occasional breeze. The theme of a song is Somewhere Over a Rainbow. Other appropriate pieces are The Blue Danube and Flow Gently Sweet Afton.

If you are ready to start the exercise, at this juncture, please pause.

You will come to know the basis of judging your work after you are through. It takes some twenty minutes to finish.


NOTE: Do not read these criteria until you have completed your drawing.

Exchange your paper with your seatmate's. The instructor will now guide you in checking the papers with the criteria below. Use a scale of 1 to 10, starting with 1=Very Poor to 5=Average, and to 10=Outstanding. It's now your discretion to grade the paper given you.

1. Height of the waterfall
2. Fullness of its water
3. Lushness of its watershed
4. Abundance of its source, river or lake
5. Force and power of the fall
6. Strength and firmness of the rock face
7. Downstream flow and direction
8. Creatures in their natural habitat
9. No wasteland, no space left out
10. Naturalness and artistic presentation

Add the points obtained from each of the 10 factors. The perfect score is 100. Return paper to the owner.

The second part of the exercise is sharing. What is the significance of this exercise? How does it relate to life?

Relate each criterion with your personal life, your dealings with people, Nature, and the Creator. This takes about half an hour or so.

This exercise leads you to know yourself better - your strength and weakness - and most important - your potentials. ~

Kites and Dreams

Kites and Dreams

Dr Abe V Rotor

Kites and Dreams, mural section by AV Rotor

When I was young I dreamed with kites;
the higher they flew, the happier I was -
yet sadder, lonelier.

For who would like to stay up for long,
perhaps forever in the sky,
lofty it may be.

It is not always good to dream;
for a strong wind comes suddenly
and breaks the string.

And if my kite didn't fly, as it did
many times; well, dreams are
but air castles.

I loved big kites, big dreams,
until they took me away -
far, far away.

And never built and flew kites again,
yet kept on dreaming,
of returning.~

Sunset - the passing of day, the coming of night.

Sunset

Photo by Marlo R Rotor

Quirino Bridge, Banaoang Pass, Santa, Ilocos Sur, 2001

Sunset:

call it beauty,

the color of war,

and death itself;

it is enough,

the passing of day.

the coming of night. ~

 Man and Island

Dr Abe V Rotor 

Painting by Leo Carlo Rotor 12, 5th prize winner, Human Values through 

Painting and Mural, Sathya Sai Education in Human Values (SSEHV), 2001

They say a happy island

makes a happy man,

a sad man makes it sad,

alone or in others' company;

for deep in the mind bloom

memories happy and sad,

whether the path was bright,

or dark as a stormy night.

It matters little if all is right

or one took the other turn,

if the mind is at ease;

like the sea after tempest,

settles down to rest

in silence and peace. ~

Chinese Painting: Fantasy Landscape

Chinese Painting: Fantasy Landscape

Painting and Verse by
Dr Abe V Rotor 

Raging fire and cool jade

marble of blue and ebony

jagged mountains ascending

colors not of earth

nor water nor sky

creatures by imagination

carved, floating, flying 

landscape of far away

in imagination, in myth

not on earth 

not in heaven 

not by man -

yet called

man, heaven and earth ~


Fantasy Landscape (15.5" x 43") acrylic on canvas.
circa 2007

Man with a Hammer

Man with a Hammer

Dr Abe V Rotor

Man with a Hammer, life size in stone by a local artisan,

the late Boy Peralta, San Vicente, Ilocos Sur

Here he stands, sun and rain, season in and out, alone,
a sledge hammer hangs on his brawn, frozen in time;
so blank his stare toward his subject, lifeless as stone,
immortality defined in neglect in mournful sublime.

And yet seeks man the mystery of power cum divine,
a god from Mount Olympus, on Apollo to the moon;
yet Man with a Hoe, Markham's hero a lowliest kind,
and Rodin's thinking man turned prophet of doom.

Mortal, shortcut to man lofty dreams, and often greed,
a hammer falling from the sky striking the hardest;
not once, but many times 'til the die is cast to the grid,
in Medusa's gaze, freezing man perhaps in his best.

And bridging the gaps of thoughts and generations,
in suspended animation of true story or legend;
yet live the man with a hammer for whatever reasons,
and souls seeking immortality at the final bend.~