Santiago Rusiñol, Jardines de Monforte IV, 1917

The walls of the garden enclose a project of individual happiness. Growing one’s own orchard and tending one’s own garden are metaphors of the abandonment of collective passion; and the tamed, intimate nature of the garden is an acceptable substitute for paradise: there is no garden that is not a potential Garden of Eden. Few have the tenacity of the gardener: behind the gentle countenance lurks a robust, persuasive, vegetal determination. Come to think of it, there seems to be no other way to pursue personal contentment...
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