Ceiba

From seventy meters up, Ceiba holds court over the whole green ocean. The kapok is the emergent queen of the rainforest — her crown breaks above the canopy like a ship's prow, her buttress roots are flying buttresses, and when her pods ripen she snows silk floss over the court below: soft, white, weightless decrees. Petitioners climb for days to reach her audience branches — young understory trees begging for light, lianas requesting trellis rights — and she hears them all with the patience of something that has been tall since before the court had a name. "Height is status," the faction says, "and the emergent layer is the court." Ceiba adds the part they leave out: "And the court serves the forest, or it is only a tall chair." When she finally drops her leaves in the dry season, the whole throne stands briefly naked — and somehow more royal.