A Story About a Plant: Part 3

A Growth…

I started to stack plants and pots as soon as I moved. The previous tenant left behind a struggling aloe, and a dying monstera deliciosa on the porch. I avoided it for nearly six months. It was not my energy. It had been some kind of gift to them and there were ribbons and note cards attached to it that I would not read. I let it collect dust and dirt from the outside, soot from the increasing wildfires that burned in the distance. Eventually I was won over by its absolute refusal to give in to death. Eventually I trimmed it down to a single stalk and took it in to my home for propagation.

The aloe was a dying little thing that I tried to revive in my bedroom. Its pointy leaves were yellow and pale, and it always seemed to be covered with dirt no matter how many times I cleaned it. I moved it to the kitchen where I thought it would do better, but it remained sad. Next, I took it to the shadowy location on the porch outside of my front door where it started looking happy. There it grew well enough to re-pot. The only available pot was a huge one I found in the back yard, and I took the risk. Within three months it had outgrown the giant pot. This thing had stayed at one size for two years, then grew to four times that size in six months. How did it live? What did it want? Can a plant reach a stasis with itself, neither growing nor dying?

I splurged on a giant dracaena that stands six feet high in its yellow pot. It is a perfect plant, too perfect, in fact. It has the energy of something a set…