Arboreto salvatico (1991) by Mario Rigoni Stern is a collection of twenty short essays, each one dedicated to a different species of tree that the author holds dear. In each piece he blends botanical and ecological details with reflections on myth, literature, and local folklore. The trees—ranging from the larice (larch) and quercia (oak) to the tasso (yew) and frassino (ash), among others—are not simply described in physical terms, but are endowed with memories, personal associations, and symbolic resonances. Rigoni Stern writes as a man of mountain and forest, someone deeply attuned to seasonal change, the passage of time, and the link between human beings and nature. Through a style that is both poetic and contemplative, he cultivates a sense of nostalgia, of loss, but also of continuity—trees as witnesses of history and metaphors for life’s cycles.
