Some Landscapes Are Not Places. They Are Habits.

One day, this meadow will become a forest again.

Unless someone keeps bringing animals here to graze.

Why again?

Because the forest was here long before the meadow. Since the end of the last Ice Age, it has covered this landscape for nearly eight thousand years.

The meadow is much younger. It came into being when people cleared part of the forest and brought their herds here. Ever since, the forest has been quietly reclaiming what was once its own. The day grazing stops, it will continue.

The most remarkable thing about this meadow is not the cattle.

Nor the grass.

It is repetition.

Some landscapes are not shaped by nature alone.

They come into being again and again through ordinary acts repeated day after day, year after year.

Some landscapes are not places.

They are habits.

Text: Vladimír Jenčurák, Photo: Tereza Sejková