Cause And Effect

20.5x28.5 inches; Pen drawing on handmade paper with watercolour wash (Click on image to enlarge)

A moth... beautiful with silky golden wings outlined in dark brown velvety down, fluttering in my room and suddenly caught in a spider's silky web, is unable to understand why its flight was unexpectedly interrupted. It flutters a little more pulling at the fine silken threads and unwittingly informing the predatory spider that a victim has just landed on its net. I see the spider progress towards the helplessly struggling moth, cautious enough not to break any of the threads, which holds its victim tangled. Pity suddenly swells up in my heart for the moth, knowing that a thing of such beauty and full of life is going to meet a painful and slow death. I intervene. I reach out and scoop the moth out of the web, scaring the spider away which scurries away deeper within its own web as if to protect itself from me. The moth flutters in the cup of my hand with renewed vigor as if trying to celebrate its new found life force. I look adoringly at it for a few moments and take it to an open window. I set it free... and it flutters away towards the mango tree... its wings shining like a spark of sunlight on this cloudy day... and then nothing....the spark is extinguished in a blink. A finch snatches the moth away in mid flight, perches itself on a nearby branch, looks at me, mocking me as it devours the moth entirely. Life and death, the cycle of cause and effect!