historia poza-ludzka | non-human history
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Fragmenty książki Robin Wall Kimmerer, Pieśń Ziemi. Rdzenna mądrość, wiedza naukowa i lekcje płynące z natury, przeł. Monika Bukowska, Znak Literanova, Kraków 2020.
NON-HUMAN HISTORY [Excerpts from the book Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants. Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions, 2013.] The ground is uneven, hiding pits, remnants of foundations, and post-war water pipeline excavations. For 80 years, a forest has grown in this place, herbs and berries have sprouted, and the earth has been covered with moss and grass. However, before that happened, for several years, almost nothing grew here. All the seeds were trampled into the ground by hundreds of feet. The constant human movement prevented the growth of non-human beings. The grass turned to mud, the landscape was leveled, crisscrossed with roads, avenues, and stone paths. When human movement ceased, a barren, scarred space was revealed. Yet on the leveled terrain, everything changes: suddenly, the sun appears. [...] Forest ecosystems have tools for dealing with massive disturbance, evolved from a history of blowdown, landslide, and fire. The early successional plant species arrive immediately and get to work on damage control. These plants—known as opportunistic, or pioneer, species—have adaptations that allow them to thrive after disturbance. Because resources like light and space are plentiful, they grow quickly. A patch of bare ground around here can disappear in a few weeks. Their goal is to grow and reproduce as fast as possible, so they don’t bother themselves with making trunks but rather madly invest in leaves, leaves, and more leaves borne on the flimsiest of stems.
