The deserted valleys are rich in tropic fruits and the climate soft and gentle.

Yet Aztecs left the garden to journey northward into the deserts of Arizona and New Mexico.

Often for the soul paradise is not before, but behind.
Shakespeare condenses all this in "King Lear." Avarice closes the palace doors against the white-haired King.

Greed pushes him into the night to wander o'er the wasted moor, an exiled king, uncrowned and uncared for.

In such hours garden becomes desert.