A House For Mr. Biswas - pg. 184

5

GREEN VALE

Whenever afterwards Mr  Biswas thought of Green Vale he thought of the trees. Tey were tall and straight, and so hung with long, drooping leaves that their trunks were hidden and appeared to be branchless . Half the leaves were dead; the other, at the top, were a dead green. It was as if all the trees had, at the same moment, been blighted in luxuriance, and death was spreading at the same pace from all the roots. But death was forever held in check. The tonguelike leaves of dead green turned slowly to the brightest yellow, became brown and thin as if scorched, curled downwards over the other dead leaves and did not fall. And new leaves came, as sharp as daggers;  but  there was no freshness to them; they came into the world old, without a shine, and only grew longer before they too died.