Delicate Balance

In Lanai's Kanepu'u Preserve, the Conservation Department had fenced-off this native Ala'a tree to protect it from our Axis Deer.  One look was all it took for me to put it on my "must paint" list!  The leaves on the tree are green on top and copper-colored on the bottom, and as you can tell from its horizontal growth pattern, the constant wind in the Preserve never gave the tree a chance to grow tall.  Between the wind and the deer, this tree was truly in a "delicate balance"!