Botany of Desire

Last night I was fascinated by a documentary entitled, "The Botany of Desire". As Michael Pollan of The Omnivore's Dilemma infamy unraveled the tales of apples, tulips, marijuana and potatoes it became clear to me that the homo sapien centric view of the earth is so limiting. In many ways these plants have trained us to aid in their evolutionary survival and development, not the other way around. I was particularly interested in the ways in which each plant provide us with an attribute that we as humans desire. Whether it's sweetness, control, altered consciousness or beauty, somewhere in the depths of our consciousness, we crave these tangible sensations. The most limiting factor in our achievement of these desires is homogenization; it became clear to me that biodiversity is the key to plant survival. This led me to apply this principle on the broader scale, if biodiversity aids in evolution and spawns new forms of existing life and even new life forms, then this may be a metaphor for human existence as well. In any case, the documentary was extremely thought provoking and aesthetically beautiful - apple trees in Kazakhstan, marijuana fields in South America, tulips in Holland and some of the most interesting shaped purple and red potatoes came together for a visually stunning film.