ROMANIE´s world and WOX - Literary Contest

Perhaps, this painting could have multiple interpretations, which might not all converge to a comprehensive and continuous narrative.
What I see here is the allegory of modern knowledge.

The tree is the symbol of that knowledge, which resonates with the Biblical tree of knowledge. The roots of that tree lie in the existing body of knowledge, collected from the previous history, symbolized by the city. We can observe the beautiful buildings that were designed by the artistic achievement of the existing civilization. We can also observe traces of technology that is symbolized by the running car.

However, the city buildings are crooked and half-fallen apart, with the pipes contaminating the entire sky with the yellow industrial smoke. That symbolizes the faults of the existing civilization, its destructive nature.

Yet, the roots of the tree of knowledge grow from that current civilization. It’s like the fertile soil for it.

The tree is tall; it grows much higher than the existing body of knowledge. But at this point, we don’t know yet what it entails in the future. All its branches end up with the butts that themselves carry the developing fetus of something new that we don’t completely understand. Perhaps someday in the future it will develop into something beautiful and helpful and would clean the planet’s environment and people’s minds, easing the lives of everybody.

Yet, the overall anxious tone of the painting doesn’t suggest that. We can see that some of the half-developed embryos fall back on the grounds. Perhaps that symbolizes the futility of some of the efforts in finding new knowledge, or maybe it represents the thought that everything known is well forgotten old.