What is the most rare color in the universe? Green. Where there is green there is life and we all know how rare that is.
When I was 7 years old we lived on a 5 acre farm in Asotin Washington. Probably 2 acres of it was pasture. There isn’t a better smell than fresh cut alfalfa. The fragrance is so earthy and fresh. It smells sweet and almost tangy like there is an energy that is still alive wafting through the air.
I am the 5th child of 6 kids, 5 girls, 1 boy. I was always jealous that my brother got to do all the fun chores with Daddy. As a tom boy, I wasn’t what you would have labeled as domestic. I was the happiest outside doing anything!
It was a Saturday and that meant chore day. there was always a lot to do inside and out. As my sisters and I started cleaning, I could see the boys out in the pasture, turning the alfalfa with pitchforks. It had been cut a week before and was ready to be flipped.
I begged my Mom to let me go out there and help them. I plead my case by pointing out that there were 5 girls cleaning the house and poor Daddy only had Dennis. She agreed and I darted out the door, stumbling and hopping, trying to put my shoes on while I was still in motion. It might as well have been Christmas!
I ran over to where they were, announcing that Mama said I could help. Daddy sent me back to the barn to get a pitchfork with instructions to hold it with the fork away from me and not to run. For a 7 year old tom boy, there couldn’t have been anything better than being outside doing chores with a lethal weapon, and with permission, no less!
I had my hair in braids under a baseball cap. The cap came in handy as a splash guard, as I raised homing pigeons and frequently was covered in pigeon poop. As I walked from the barn to the back of the pasture, I could smell the green under my feet. Every step unleased a wave of goodness that bounced off the bill of my cap and sent it’s intoxicating spell right under my nose. I remembered thinking how lucky the cows were because they had their noses in it all day as they grazed. I wonder if they love that smell as much as I do, I thought. I slowed my walk to drink it in just a little bit more.
Daddy moved over a row and instructed me to take over his row right along side Dennis. I was determined to keep up with him to prove that I could work just as hard as a boy. The pitchfork weighed almost as much as I did and my brother was teasing me that I’d better keep up or the circling crows would think I was a worm and carry me away! Distracted while looking up at the crows, I got dizzy and crossed over into his row. Unfortunately it was just as he was thrusting the pitch fork underneath the piled alfalfa where it found and skewered my foot.
“Don’t cry” was my first thought. “You have to be tough, you’ve got this” As my brother now was hurriedly giving me a piggyback ride back to the house, I remember looking down at my throbbing foot and the drops of blood falling on the sweet green carpet and telling myself to close my eyes and concentrate on the sweet smell of green. It worked all the long way back to the house until I took off my shoe and saw the hole in my foot and that was the end of the “stay tough” routine! I embraced being a 7 year old little girl and launched into a good cry.
Enjoy
The Smell Of Green is composed of organic matter representing the natural elements that evoked and framed it’s origins. The green tinted resin base reflects the piece mirroring the reflected memory of that sweet smell.