Rachael and Melvyn 9.
On GREEN-NESS
M. Mm?
R. There’s so much green-ness around; trees, grass, everything. It’s weird..
M. Hildegard of Bingen thought green-ness was fertility, justice and even life itself.
R. Who?
M. Hildegard. One of my favourites. She ran a nunnery on the Rhine about a thousand years ago. She was a visionary and a writer. She composed wonderful songs too.
R. And she thought green-ness was life…. I suppose animals eat green stuff, and we eat animals to keep alive. Unless we are vegetarians. Perhaps she had a point. But I don’t expect she knew much about chlorophyll.
M. Nor do I for that matter. Tell me about it. It’s a long time since I did any Botany.
R. Chlorophyll in plants turns carbon dioxide, water and sunlight into sugar and oxygen. Apparently there wasn't any oxygen on earth 'till chlorophyll came along.
M. Well, well. Fancy that. Good system, isn't it?
R. Lucky for us.
M. Do you think it all came about by chance?
R. Dunno.
M. Mind you, it’s funny that it’s called chlorophyll which means green-lover I believe. It seems to me that in fact green isn't much use.
R. What?
M. It's what the plants chuck out when they've sucked out the red light they really like.
R. Mm. Sounds like Hildegard was wrong. Maybe she was wrong about fertility too. Our teacher says you get the best wild flowers where it's not so fertile.
M. How’s that?
R. She says that where there's plenty of fertility about the boring, greedy grasses bully and smother the wild flowers.
M. Just like boring, greedy people. But we don’t generally eat wild flowers and more fertility means more food.
R Mmm. Food. Any chance of a marmalade toastie and a mug of tea.?
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