Nature Observation 2 - Greens


The bush sat motionless in the silent night air.  From afar, its greenish gray shade seemed to evenly coat the outside of its structure.  It was a blob of color raised slightly off the ground, as if someone or something crouched and was frozen in position.  The bush rested behind an area of grasses and Asian jasmine sprawled across the ground.  The bush could almost resemble an assemblage of the Asian jasmine if the Asian jasmine clumped together, grew taller, and retained a specific shape.  Surrounded by smaller plants, the bush stood powerfully, and its dense leaves and branches allowed the viewer to see only an inch into its interior.

On closer inspection, a spectrum of green color covered the bush, not just the greenish gray I had seen previously.  The distance at which I analyzed its components created a range of different impressions.  In fact, by looking independently from long-distance, middle-distance, and up close, I might not recognize it as the same bush.  At each level of decreasing depth, more details materialized.  Getting closer, I saw details of its little leaves linked by woody stems the size of a toothpick. Each leaf contributed to the broad shape and texture of the plant even though each had personality of its own. The size of each leaf compared to an adult’s thumb, branching out from the its stem into a broad array of green before converging back into one point at the tip. On touching its point, I was surprised to find the rigidity in the leaves structure. It felt strong enough to poke through my shirt if I had brushed up too closely. This observation led me to notice the waxy coating enclosing its structure. Certainly, this layer provided protection against Texas’s punishing heat.

I broadened my viewing angle once again and noticed how the bush was shaped. Squared corners and rectangular arrangement, it followed the sidewalk adjacent to its position. The bush had been manicured to match its environment.  This led me to wonder if I would recognize its species in the “wild.”

Comments

  1. williams.dan76September 18, 2019 at 9:33 AM

    Thanks for posting, and thanks for taking a close look at the bush. This is exactly the kind of description I was hoping for.

    ReplyDelete

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