FILM FARMING AND MATISSE

Photo by B.C.

NHK World, a PBS counterpart network based in Japan (community-supported and focusing on arts and science), had an interesting documentary feature last night, "Film Farming," about soil-less growing of fruit vegetables using plastic sheets made of hydrocarbons, rows and rows of them in a greenhouse acting as growing beds. The inventor's ecological goal is to stem the tide of the rapid depletion of arable land on earth -  because there's not much left of it -  and vis-a-vis saving the planet's fresh water systems - ditto - as hydrocarbons are otherwise stable molecules that sustain the plant at the cellular level from seed to maturity, and is also an organic element the borrows earth's sweetness in a micro-drop, thereby producing the real cherry in the tomato. 

Matisse, the French painter, loved sky blues and shapely figures and orange drops. At The Met Museum in New York there was a painting of his of a fishbowl on a kitchen table that playfully visualized these signature strokes and colors in the modernist style. The photos in this blog function as the cinematography of food, and they are mutually exclusive to its intended theme, metaphor, and inspiration. (Look at the pictures again through the lens/window of the title.) Cooking results from this inspiration, whether for writing or eating. Thoreau said to "suck out the marrow of life" so I draw from the nectar of my experiences inside out with words. 

My friend took a picture of my food and it reminded me of Matisse. I just picked the basil, nasturtium flower, and cherry tomatoes from my porch, washed them  and dried on paper towel, and they reminded me of film farming. Eating is real as science and art. I just told my roommate he can have the extra corn-on-the-cob (husks on) in the fridge and heat it up with its saved juice in a separate container. Steaming now, I can smell how concentrated its sweetness is, and I recommend he spread almond butter on it and suck out its marrow through the teeth. Pablo Neruda said in a poem that "my mouth had no way with words, my eyes were blind, but something started in my soul." Eating, hands down, is as good as it gets.