Tezos

Proof of Palm – jonCates (2025)

Creator

tz1gMhB92K1Nh8ZxDT18TmjGhSkEjXDxENPj

Description

Miss Emeralynn Gale pondered upon all the curiosities L. Frank Baum kept inn his odd little shoppe he called Baum's Bazaar. Just under the picture window, inn the floorshadow, rather than the sunlit shelf, she saw a potted palm && innside it, sumthin' grow'N. A little mysterry. Deeply out of place. A bit like herself, she thought. A bit holy, like a psalm. Prismatic alone. A verse inna 'nother language. From Far Away. Emmy saw that Baum had scrawled a little note && attached it to the smalltree: "Subtropicskull && Other Memento-Mortis" as if he were inn a cataloguing mood on that day when he had wrote that little note to hisself. The note didn't sound quite like Baum, more like somethin he had heard && transcribed. Mayhaps from The Aalhmenichiaká, Free Spirit Almanac. As Emmy peered inside the writing she could make out words innside the words, which weren’t exactly words, as if written inna different hand that said: 只要死亡即可重生。 She wondered if this plant was borrowed like the language used to describe it... Had he borrowed it && then left it on the wooden floor to become see-through, haunted-like? Ghostly glitches at the edges where the palm breaks off. Emmy glanced at Baum, catching his eye. He was instantly embarrassed that she had seen && understood his half-remembered thoughts. Yes, he had left that plant there. Accidentally forgotten. To thrive neglected. Instead it grew translucent, revealing itself. He had expected her to cut innto him with her sharp wit when she found this misplaced thing of his, but instead, her eyes sparkled softly. Showing her kindness. At first she just held his gaze, said noth'n. Just lightly smiling. Then, slowly, she articulated each word like skipping stones across The Lake. She said: “Fancy ya got yerself a real mysterry here, Misterr Baum! This one sure does grow backwards, don't it? Rhizomatic as they say. Nonlinear roots come first from Death turning innward to find Life Itself until it goes to seed and blooms like a riddle I heard once. From Eygpt. Yer palm tree's feeding on a thought you ain’t quite forgot.” He was, as always inn her presence, spellbound. “Yes,” he said awkwardly, shifting his weight, moving towards her to scoop up the proof. Had she really been to Eygpt? His skull full of promise. So many stories. Yet to tell. Before sunset. Inn the Springtime of Life. An oasis. Proof of palm trees' magic. Growing back inn time, from 'The End' of the story, all the way along the road. Find the begin'n. She smiled again.