Gedo Senki (Tales from Earthsea)

21st December 2005

Part 6 - The Sleeping Face of Clover

As I announced the other day, today I'm going to take it a bit easy, and write about the 'discovery' I made in my garden at night.

Do you know what clover looks like when it's asleep?
Clover's other name is Shirotsumekusa.[1]
It's an extremely common, unremarkable plant in Japan.

I smoke tobacco, but I hate smoke building up in a confined indoor space. When I smoke at home, I always do it outside.

Two days ago, in the middle of the night, it had gotten really cold that day. As usual, I went outside and although it was freezing, puffed away in the clean air, when I noticed that one corner of the garden was glittering like the Milky Way.

Wondering what was going on, I went over and crouched down for a better look, and saw lots of clover with their leaves tightly rolled up displaying their white undersurfaces. Frost had settled on those surfaces, and the light reflecting of those surfaces was glittering.

The way these leaves rolled up is interesting too.

[2]

In this way, two leaves are folded in upright, and the third covers over the top like an umbrella. I had no idea that the clover I was accustomed to seeing took on such a sleeping form at night!

Nature is really full of fantasy.

Translator's Notes

[1]: Japanese name

[2]: Two hand drawn diagrams follow here. The left is labelled "noon", the right "night".