Touring through the West Bank was a unique, peculiar sort of travel.

It is a war zone.

It has been a war zone for many years, but on most days, it is a war zone without bullets, without bombs.

The peculiarity, is the tension that hides underneath. And the possibility that the calm could shift into a violent burst at any given moment.

But it does not.

Workers carve out statuettes from blocks of olive wood. Children ride down the hilly streets, past ruinous buildings and trash filled curbs, hanging onto the back of banged-up shopping carts and using the sole of their worn-out shoes and breaks.

When you enter Palestinian territory, you cross the famous “Green Line,” or the demarcation line set out in the 1949 Armistice Agreements between the armies of Israel and those of its neighbors. Essentially, the borders of Israel.

A giant sign is posted just before you cross, warning you of the dangers.

But after visiting Palestine, and crossing the Green Line, my view has changed.

Green, after all is the color of life, as it is for the green of blossoming leaves and buds after a long stretch of bleak winter.

And I could assure you, both are very much alive on either side.

- Jericho, Palestinian Territory. (December 2018)