Broccoli Bursting--7/3/08

I'm trying to figure out a way to describe the beauty of the broccoli's growing crown. The densely packed little blue-green bobulul's, a sort of live brain, a sort of proof that life is a miracle. Deep in its hood of cabbage-like leaves, nested in there, protected, growing--I realize I could easily become a Jain (spelling?), a member of the Hindu sect that doesn't eat root vegetables because that's the end of the life of that plant.

Yesterday I beheaded a head of butter crunch lettuce. Someday I will be yanking carrots, severing broccoli stalks. It's bizarre to be this in touch with the aliveness of the plant, and the the same time, I've activated my hunter/gatherer instinct. Hunting the domesticated asparagus; greedily taking in what the earth, sun, rain yields.