* The author is part of the community of readers of La Vanguardia
With these images in the Photos of the Readers of La Vanguardia I propose a reading through the colors, textures, shapes, landscapes and details of cork, searching for the intimate and deep essence of a typically Mediterranean forest, special, overflowing with symbology, which we do not lack in Catalonia in places like Baix Empordà.
There we even find a museum dedicated to cork, in Palafrugell, where "the vertebrate heritage around the world of cork in Catalonia is valued, as a shaper of a landscape, an industry, ways of life and a common identity."
The world of cork has enjoyed the attention of great writers, such as Prudenci Bertrana, Josep Pla or Gaziel, who have described its properties and virtues in their writings.
Cork is the bark of the cork oak (Quercus suber), a plant tissue that in botany is called phelema and that covers the trunk of the tree.
Every year, a new periderm grows – formed by rings that grow from the inside to the outside of the cork oak – which overlaps the oldest ones, thus forming this bark.
