"On the rain-freshened green moss, the slug's markings are striking and richly contrasted. As the slug slides onto the lichen-covered rock face, the effect changes. Colors and form melt into the variegated surface: beauty remains, but it is the camouflaged beauty of belonging.
"Multitudes crawl, squirm, and writhe below my feet. But I seem to be alone up here in the air above. The soil's warmth and moistness help make possible this zoological extravagance, but these benign conditions would be for naught if the soil were not well provisioned. Death is the soil's main supplier of food. All terrestrial animals, leaves, dust particles, droppings, tree trunks, mushroom caps, are destined for the soil. We are all destined to pass through the dark underworld, feeding other creatures as we go."
~ David George Haskell, The Forest Unseen
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