Deviation Actions
Description
Towering above other trees in the Amazon jungle, the Kapok tree is a giant guardian. It stretches pale green-striped branches to the sky. Its canopy spreads wide, providing shelter for many creatures, embracing the land with its arcing shade, and studded with the white petals of its night-blooming flowers that attract bats as pollinators.
The ancient Maya held the kapok tree as sacred, and as a tree of life, called Yaxche. It stands at the center of the earth as a conduit between the spirit worlds and the physical, its long vines being the channels by which the realms are interconnected.
Tucked among its roots are bats, who are representative of the underworld. The trunk is host to birds and insects and animals, providing them shelter and nourishment for life and growth. Perched at the crown, which points north, south, east, and west, is an eagle who represents the celestial.
It is the home for the Gods, as well as supernatural creatures, and it is also revered for its medicinal qualities, and the practical uses of the silk-like fibers from the seedpods.