The Painted Bark

Iris the rainbow eucalyptus — her trunk peels into living rainbow, repainted every season — leads the faction that trades in appearances: Papyra the paper birch peeling white scrolls, Suber the cork oak (bark harvested without killing the tree — the faction’s great moral example, cited constantly), Aparra the ghost gum glowing at dusk, and Katsura, whose fallen leaves smell of candy-floss. The shedding season is an election, the new bark is a platform, and Iris wins every time, because you cannot out-paint a rainbow.

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