WINTER RAIN in Taiwan’s mountains seems to hang in the air, getting into every seam of my clothes. The weather was warm when I left the city, but two thousand meters up, Continue reading →

SHE SITS ACROSS from us, the middle-aged Black woman in the orange vinyl-upholstered chair, her eyes red and swollen, gripping a tissue that has been disintegrating for the last two hours into Continue reading →

WHEN I WAS a sixteen-year-old naturalist in training, we were instructed to sit in the forest and wait for the return of something called “the baseline symphony.” The baseline symphony was Continue reading →

Can I find any lasting solace in the color green? —Naomi Shihab Nye, “Mint Snowball” YOU CAN SMELL IT before you spot it, one of the first fragrant greetings of spring. Continue reading →