Skin was earth; it was soil. I could see, even on my own skin, the joined trapezoids of dust specks God had wetted and stuck with his spit the morning he made Adam from dirt. Now, all these generations later, we people could still see on our skin the inherited prints of the dust specks of Eden.
In Annie Dillard's "An American Childhood," she reflects on the connection between humanity and the earth through the imagery of skin as soil. She describes the physicality of human skin as a canvas that shows the marks of creation, suggesting that our existence is intrinsically linked to the earth itself. The portrayal of dust specks connects human beings back to their origins, tying them to the biblical story of Adam formed...
