LEAVES – the life’s cycle
what feeling do leaves recall in a tattoo?
what do leaf tattoos mean?
we see leaves everywhere
and in a simple way they mark time like a clock
they mark the change of the seasons
and the notches of the cyclicality of life
it’s the end of winter and we see it from the small closed buds on bare branches
slowly the bud opens up and reveals a small light green ball still insecure and shy that then takes courage and opens up to show off the bursting arrival of a ripe spring
then summer comes and the light green leaf becomes ripe and turns dark green
it’s mature, as much as it can
it twists a little on itself
the first wrinkles appear with the arrival of September
and it slowly changes its color turning towards a bright yellow
which changes into a fiery orange and finally into a solemn brown
all of a sudden, in a day like any other, the leaf falls and leaves the branch alone
just like a few months ago
it lies on the ground and rests in silence
in winter it reconnects with the earth and melts in it to return to the tree through the roots and start over its journey from the inside to come out again, once again, like a small bright green bud
the inexorable cycle of life continues before our eyes and we barely notice it
and we suffer, we cry and we get angry when something falls from our hands: an opportunity, a dream, a life
something that we thought was ours slides away
and we suffer, we cry and we get angry and we don’t understand that it’s normal like this, that the energy is constantly changing and it is not waiting, prisoned in our hands
the energy moves, changes shapes, doesn’t wait for us
why should we stop and keep things in our hands instead of moving and let life flow?
before 500 B.C.
before Heraclitus started to think about the world
the word “change” didn’t exist
because the concept of immobility didn’t exist
man thought that the natural law that everything is in perpetual change was implicit
the immobility was not contemplated
and so the word “change” didn’t exist
and why now – 2520 years later – are we so fucking afraid of the natural change of things?
why do we get angry, pissed and suffer and cry when things change?
why don’t we take the change for what it is?
it’s just an evolutionary moment
a chance to become better
the possibility to renew the wrinkled leaf with a brilliant bud
better than before
bigger and stronger
at each cycle a little more than before
“the collateral beauty” that we find everywhere, as Will Smith would say,
is always under our eyes and we don’t even notice it
with love, but always irriverent
L A D Y S A R A
