Sitting in the heights above what was Manchester, he looks down at the lagoon that has filled the courtyard. Thick trees rise above the buildings, forming a canopy of emerald shadow, muting the richness of the colours below, the waxy, thousand-fold shades of green on the fractal leaves of ferns and serpentine vines and patches of soaking moss. The water lies in a patch of sunlight, turquoise depths run a gradient into the golden sand at its edges. Inside the interior of the Manchester jungle, the temperatures exceed sixty degrees. Yet, as he watches, the first few glittering snowflakes catch the sun as they drift down the dappled shafts of light to the forest floor.
Paddy Dobson
5th April 2021