Almost all of the tiles that once covered the floors of this vast palace have long since vanished. Much of it was carried away in 1683 to celebrate the power of the Sultan of Meknes – the ruthless Moulay Ismail. Yet 500 years after its installation, fragments of the lavish tiling still remain, although nature now seems to be staking its own claim to it. The crumbling tile and the flow of green leaves from it demonstrates the ever-present tension between the work of man and the march of nature. I cropped the image into a long rectangle to intensify that tension.