It seems so unnatural that this old dead tree would be surrounded by such lush foilage. I like the concept of dead and lush but it seems like it somehow doesnt work well here. You said this is one of your attempts. I would like to see others. Perhaps if you manipulated the image so that it framed the lush greenery like it does on the lower bottom and frames around the image like that and not as much on the left side. Use the bottom and fill it in and clone it around using it as a frame. I think that would get you more of what I think you were going for. It is a creative idea and I am sure you will find a way to make it work for you.

It is out of the World. But thats cool

oh yeah...i named it "underworld" because i was trying to make it look like you were looking out from somewhere dead to somewhere alive