Oaxaca update

In between my reading and note taking on plants and the paranormal; which has morphed now into a general investigation of the sensitivities and communicative properties of plants starting with Goeth and continuing through Jagadis Chandra Bose, Vogel, Backster and Masanobu Fukuoko; I walk around a lot. Mostly looking into peoples gardens and visiting taco and quesadilla street stalls. I embarrassingly don't speak a lick of spanish, but have gotten rather succinct with miming. You should see me try to order an ice cream cone.








This group has become like a my little surrogate family; one without judgement or presupposed notions of creative 'success' ...we're all here to research different topics and be outside of our daily routines in order to expand somehow creatively. It's indulgent in all the right ways, and I've never felt more productive or free.

We did visit the famous Ethnobotanical Garden yesterday; a required tour to get inside was incredibly crowded; if I had more time here I would apply for a special permit to work inside, which apparently is obtainable if you contact the garden a few days prior with a specific project/request.  (Soon, visitors will be able to download an app that leads them through the garden on their own; but there was no definitive timeframe for this.)

The garden was designed by Francisco Toledo; a Oaxacan artist whose work is often politically and socially charged and whose influence is evidenced all over this city and across Mexico. He really affects change, it's awe-inspiring.  When McDonalds tried to move into the Zocolo Square in Oaxaca Toledo campaigned against it...and won. The garden is riddled with beautiful references to the history and often unfortunate exploitation of Mexican people...from the harvesting of cochineal beetles to create the rich red farbric dyes prized by Spanish royalty to the imposition of Catholicism.

This is a geo-thermal greenhouse being built for the orchid collection....

Agave, the plant famously responsible for Mezcal abounds here. It's flowers stand 3-5 meters tall. The Agave is semelparous; it has a single reproductive episode before death. It expounds all its energies and sugars to this giant stalk which can grow up to 10 cm a day.  

This reminded me of a quote I just read by Steiner comrade Ernst Lehrs: "While progressing from leaf to flower the plant undergoes a decisive ebb in its vitality. Compared with the leaf, the flower is a dying organ. This dying, however, is of a kind we may aptly call a 'dying into being.' Life in its mere vegetative form is here seen withdrawing in order that a higher manifestation of the spirit may take place."