How does vision draw someone to a piece of earth?

How does vision draw someone to a piece of earth?
Originally uploaded by MontanaRaven.

"How does vision, this tyrant of the senses, draw someone to a piece of earth? What do the eyes rest upon -- mind disengaged, heart not -- that combines senses and affection into a homeland? Do the eyes conspire with other senses in a kind of synesthetic faculty; an ability to respond to the colors of place as if they were taste and scent, sound and touch? On walks in my desert home a yellow cottonwood leaf stings my tongue like lemon, the indigo and copper margins of the river in shadow inflict the bruise of a frail wind on my skin. Somehow in the day's prismatic clarity, even in the untrustworthy moonlight, these orgs of blood and nerves understand that light is the language of the desert."
--- Ellen Meloy, from The Anthropology of Turquoise: Reflections on Desert, Sea, Stone and Sky
Copyright 2002 by Ellen Meloy