Remember, man, that thou art dust, and to dust thou shalt return.

As a photographer, I sometimes come in contact with some pretty interesting people. Even though I took his picture in 2007, I didn't really know Clark Wang until this past weekend. You see, Clark died last week and a friend of his contacted me for a copy of this photograph to show at his funeral. He was only 49 and died from complications of s stem cell transplant in an attempt to cure the lymphoma that ultimately consumed him.

Digging into a Google search, I learned what an amazing person he was ... cellist, Duke-trained psychiatrist, folk dancer, and one of the strongest advocates of the green burial movement. Unembalmed, he was waked at home and buried in a casket made of recycled wood and built for him by his friends.

Green burials make a lot of sense. The International Agency for Research on Cancer classifies formaldehyde, a major component of embalming fluids as a Class 1 Carcinogen: "the agent (mixture) is definitely carcinogenic to humans." Despite best efforts, a formaldehyde laden body will untimately corrupt the ecosystem. When a persons body is buried in a green way, their molecules return to the earth's natural cycle of life instead of rotting in a crypt.