the.com/bayou
where the river forgets to leave and the water learns to wait
means A slow-moving, marshy offshoot or backwater of a lake or river, especially in the low-lying Gulf Coast of the southern United States.
from From Louisiana French 'bayou,' borrowed from the Choctaw word 'bayuk,' meaning a creek or small stream. The word traveled up from Native American speech into French-speaking Louisiana, and the spelling and sound got smoothed by French mouths along the way — which is why a Choctaw stream now sounds so unmistakably Cajun.
- slow flow
- Often barely moves, hovering near zero current
- word roots
- From Choctaw bayuk, meaning small stream
- alligator turf
- American alligators hunt these murky channels
- oxbow origin
- Many form from abandoned river bends
- carbon vault
- Wetland mud stores vast amounts of carbon
atchafalaya swamp — louisiana's largest swamp at 1.4 million acres, contains bayou ecosystems with cypress forests and wildlife
bayou teche — historic bayou in south-central louisiana near new iberia, site of civil war battles and acadian settlement
bayou lafourche — 200-mile bayou in louisiana that was a major transportation route for native americans and french colonists