stimulants to vision

Travel with me back to the years of yesteryear, to the glory days of the Louisiana plantation home. A famous photographer and poetic chronicler of these period homes, writes that ...those who feel, and know, something of the mystery and magic of the old ruined houses of Louisiana find in them more than the satisfaction of mere antiquarian curiosity; find, instead, unique stimulants to vision, and to memory: and, as well, what might roughly be termed a metaphysical and poetic adventure.” Most of these magnificent creations have decayed into ruins but we can see how “the house, despite its tremendous size is dwarfed by the enormous upsurge of the oaks surrounding it - the former gardens having been reclaimed by the wilderness: while from above, from around, from everywhere, we see, and feel, the slow sad drip of the moss. And after a while, this drip and its grayness seem to get into our blood: they steal the hues of things and give a funereal and disquieting cast to the whole land that not even the banana trees, with their great green sails of sun-seeking tissue, their marvelous liquid pouring of light from their translucent leaf surfaces, can wholly dispel...”