I saw that the earth was turned

and landed on it

~

while resting on a root from last year

I patiently wait

till the flowers bloom

and I can die

I grew up in the country side. When I biked to school in the next town or walked besides the river, I saw all the farmers working. I saw what they were doing when they let the cows on the fields or plowed the soil, but I never really understood why they were doing all these things.

I started reading a book today called: The knowledge illusion written by Steven Sloman and Philip Fernbach. In short, the book goes about our knowledge, how we think that we know a lot but in reality, we know very little. The gave the example of a toilet and asked people how it works. Most people are confident that they know how it works but after questioning they realize that they only know about the button you have to push and that there are some leavers. Most of us don’t know how you calculate the length of the different parts to make the mechanism work or the rubber quality of the seals, we know how a toilet works, but also not.

That is what I have with the work the farmers do, I see all their work and enjoy the products of their labor but I have honestly no clue how they do it. But this weekend I helped my landlord planting potatoes. She told me about the crop rotation, how she has 4 plots and only uses one at a time so the soil can “rest” for 3 years. She plowed the ground once and flattened it later. After that she had to make sure she planted the potatoes before it started raining again otherwise, she has to plow again. Then we use a machine from the 50s that she pulled along with a tractor that opened the soil again and buries the potatoes automatically…To make a long story short, I know now a little bit more about the whole process and gained some appreciation for all the work that you have to put into it.

As some kind of thank you to nature I decided to use the field with the newly planted potatoes as a photo…model…canvas…for the summer. I will try to go out there every day and take pictures of all that is happening on that small piece of land. Today it is just sand but I sat down and after a few minutes a sow movement and started taking pictures of the insects that are also exploring the newly turned soil.