Oak Token

To remember the iconic canopied path of the Oak Alley Plantation in Louisiana, I took both this picture and a piece of bark that had fallen down. I keep it in my living room, next to an ornate leaf from the Taj Mahal which had also fallen down — I’m not that kind of tourist! — and other things I have picked up on my travels: a lava rock from Mount Vesuvius, a desert rose from the Sahara …