the slope transformed from dry and leafy to moist and rainforested the deeper he slid , and he skipped through streams of spraying waterfalls and into ferny plants he 'd never seen before , flew past burls of golden-trunked trees whose bark let off a filmy light , into a low stratum of fog that made thra wet and white , emerging upon a deep valley and shooting over a short cliff where he managed to get himself facing right-side-up before skidding into open space , free falling at high speed over the open vale , a thousand green leaves covering the sky , landing on a leaf so wide that houses could be built out of it , ships folded from its lance-tipped green shape .