Greener than green

by Emely Cortez (United States of America)

I didn't expect to find USA

Driving by the greenest green I have ever seen, there is nothing for miles but this unwavering color; only the static of the radio as it fights for clarity reminds me that I am making my way somewhere, where all this green will be gone. I don’t want to take this for granted, but I also don’t want to take pictures. There are no cars on this long stretch of road, a few phantom vehicles move past but they are far and few. I can look outside my window as freely and frequently as I want. The memory of that drive is seared in my brain. The rain as it drizzled in curtains, and made the smells of the landscape come alive. I could make out darker clouds in the horizon. They did not cross over into this holy green pasture. I was not in nature, I was in a car, staring at these inexplicably green fields, knowing I was headed to a “civilized” place; I was not in nature. I was in a small contained pastoral image, that felt so real, and invoked memories that did not belong to me, that I had not lived. The landscape was once something else, but now, artificial or not, it felt real to me. I was not in nature but felt like I was. My mind began to do what one’s mind does when in nature; my life flashed before my eyes and then there was only now. Now this is where I am and where I want to be. I wanted to pull over and lie in the grass. Melt back into the earth. Surrounded by the cloak of sky. I wanted to be the grass staring at the sparse parade of cars passing by, imagining where they where going.