Trees and Their Absence

A notebook entry.

Pont Royal, by Edmond Zeiger, 1921. Collection of the author.

Today the air smelled of linden blossoms and hot pavement.

I went to have a citron pressé down by the river, and saw that two of the big quay trees, poplars that were downed in the recent storms, had been chopped up and stacked, ready for removal. In their place was the bright shock of empty a…