On the banks of the rivers, we find plants adapted to that particular environment, always wet and sometimes waterlogged. In Portuguese territory, the most common riverside trees are alders (Alnus), birches (Betula), poplars (Populus), willows (Salix), elms (Ulmus) and ash trees (Fraxinus). These are deciduous trees, losing their leaves during the winter and forming new ones in the following spring.

Riverside landscapes change enormously in appearance during the seasons - from grey and somewhat dreary landscapes during the winter to scenes full of green and shadows during the spring and summer. While strolling along the banks of the Angueira stream, near Uva, in Trás-os-Montes, in December 2020, with the riverside trees completely stripped of leaves in a grey and monotonous setting, the image of the trees in the water of the river caught my attention, dark reflections, contrasting with clouds in the sky (that wasn’t as blue as I’d like).

I focused on the reflections in the foreground, leaving out of focus the reflections of the trees on the other side of the stream. In a certain way, an abstract image evokes winter, a period of rest and dormancy for many plants and for man to recover from summer fatigue and affairs.