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Bracken fern
Fougère - السرخس
Description
This ancient plant, with origins tracing back to prehistoric times, is remarkable for its lack of seeds and flowers. Instead, it reproduces through spores, which are visible on the underside of its leaves. With more than 9,000 known species—including some aquatic varieties—ferns are most commonly found in warm climates. Their fronds slowly unfurl as they grow and can be either fertile or sterile.
This fascinating duality deeply touched Charles Corm, who dedicated two poems to the fern.
Various species are scattered throughout the garden, flourishing gracefully in both shaded corners and sunny spots.
Poem
The Fern
DDelicate and airy
Like the bird’s feathers,
The fern’s branch,
Stirs by the waterside.
By a delicate movement,
The amphora shaped crystal
That sparkles on your finger;
Is the sister of coal.
Gigantic forests,
From a dark cataclysm
Have petrified titanic trunks,
Into solid walls.
Near the English coast
Since the Genesis
For five thousand years,
These forests carry the ocean.
Elsewhere, their black ash
And this is such an implausible story
Was pressed atrociously
To form diamonds.
From the same father
Three offspring:
The fern stem
That adorns your living room,
The coal that warms
Your heart and conquers the cold,
And, better than my stanzas,
The sparkle on your finger.
*
So my dear,
Our beloved children,
By the vagaries of fate
Travel on their unknown destinies,
To failure or success,
Life is like coal,
Diamonds and ferns.
Published in La Montagne Parfumée, Éditions de la Revue Phénicienne, 1st edition – 2004
