Politics of Foliage

It is peculiar, and perhaps formidable, that in several languages a feuille de papier (a sheet of paper) has the same name as a feuille d’arbre (tree leaf), which bears no resemblance to it. Yet, the avenues of thought offered by this kinship are so rich that one is astonished not to see them followed more frequently. The first thing that stands out is the disparity between the relatively monotonous character of sheets of paper—if not in texture, then at least in form, which systematically turns out to be rectangular—and the astonishing diversity of tree leaves displaying an extraordinarily wide spectrum of shapes, textures, and sizes. This diversity is in a sense infinite, and any walk in the forest confirms it: even if it corresponds to a recognizable type, no leaf is wholly similar to another, as pure reproducibility only exists in machine-made technical objects. From this point of view, the vast factory of forests and the plant world—as long as man does not interfere with seeds and growth patterns—evokes anything but repetitive machining. Even if reiteration is the fundamental characteristic of plant growth, it never results in the production of items that are all alike.