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| Camel thorn in Bushmanland |
O, Boesmanland, vat my hand en lei my oor die rant se kant.
As jy vir my kan sê waar die Boesmanland lê.
Boesmanland vat my hand.
I am taken by the majesty of this camel thorn from our walk on the farm, Klein Pella, there is nothing else that looks so strong and rooted like it in the Bushmanland landscape.
I am reading 'Weeping Waters' by Karin Brynard, and one of her characters plants a camel thorn on a grave and talks about the tree:
"It's the old man of the Kalahari. The wise man. Did you know they can live for up to three hundred years?"
"It doesn't need rain. It's a desert tree. It's roots will find water forty metres deep. He can see, that tree. Very far. Into the future. And into the past. It knows everything - even before it happens -so it makes provision. The old people say it has it has second sight, because it predicts the drought."
"...a wild thing, that won't allow itself to be tamed..."
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