The Bark Man of La Vall d’en Bas – Les Preses

When you reach La Vall d’en Bas – Les Preses, take a good look around when you walk through the forest. You will most likely run into a creature with wooden flesh and white blood. His feet are covered in roots, his arms are covered in leaves and his backbone is protected with the skin of bark. He is the so-called Bark Man, a millennial forest genie who protects the groves and woodlands and whose mission is to preserve them and take care of them. How does he do it? If the path of the brutes and busybodies who don’t respect the trees needs to be blocked, he gets together with the thorns and briers (with their spikey branches) to stop them from entering. Often from the depths of the forest you will be able to hear him howl. It’s his way of lamenting that nowadays the trees are no longer as revered as they once were. It also reminds us that they are living beings who suffer and who have memories.