Jacques Tassin is a researcher in plant ecology at CIRAD (Center for International Cooperation in Agricultural Research for Development). He is the author of La Grande invasion, Qui a peur des espèces invasives? (2014) and A quoi pensent les plantes? (2016).
People are showing an increasing interest in trees. Recent books (L’Arbre entre visible et invisible by Ernst Zürcher, The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben) invite us to take them as models, without however specifying how that should be done, beyond a few metaphors or analogies. By contrast, this book offers an in-depth analysis of this perspective of seeing the tree as a source of inspiration, in its resemblances to as well as its differences with humans.

What can we learn from the way of life of trees to rethink and improve our own, and increase our well-being? By using established scientific knowledge, rather than resorting to uncertain ideological notions, it is possible to evaluate the promises and the limits of this approach.

“Trees seem to want to speak to the great irreverent primates that we have become. Primates today halted in their path, crushed with uncertainty, lost on the edge of that path for having stupidly forgotten that they are living on the planet of trees.”