Łaaya / Moksgm’ol. Spirit Bear.

The forest begins in green gold.

I remember the colours of the Great Bear Rainforest before I remember seeing you. Ultramarine in the shadows, a bruise of magenta beneath the canopy, moss still wet from the night. I watched the morning light filter through the cedar and hemlock and warm the stones along the river. Then a Steller’s jay broke the quiet. We waited.

You came out of the dark green and sat on a rock by the water. Łaaya. Moksgm’ol. Spirit bear. I thought I’d see white, but the longer I looked, the more colour I found. Cream along your shoulder, ochre around your face, a little gold as the light passed over your coat.

You sat there so easily, with the river moving between us. I wanted the moss, the water and the trees in the frame with you. There was something in the way you settled onto that rock that made me feel how completely you belonged there. I pressed the shutter as the morning laid one last glaze across your coat and the forest finished the painting.