THE FOLIAGE OF THE ALPHABET
AS THE DEEPER HEART OF WISDOM
Perhaps universal history
is the history of the diverse intonations of a few metaphors.
– Jorge Luis Borges, “Pascal’s Sphere,” 1951
I’ve drawn a word a day on leaves, thinking:
each word, as a work of time, is layered in meaning.
And like the patterning of living leafy interlacement
energy flows through their veins.
A word has a branching that can stretch through time
to dozens of offshoots and variations,
transpositions and interpretations; it’s a beautiful study.
For in the etymon, it’s the true thing — the true name of a thing.
The leaves of the tree are like the leaves of the book, and in fact —
these two are aligned — the book, the leaf, the folio.
The library — the place of books, from liber “book, paper, parchment,” originally the “inner bark of trees,” perhaps from the seed sound, the PIE root *leubh — “to strip, to peel” -as in: leaf.
So the book is a sheathing of leaves, made of the inner bark of trees — leaves turning, the page, the leaf, turned.
A new story,
a new ideal,
a new leaf — turned.
See then, these leaves, leaf / words — the meaning intermingled:
TIM | GIRVIN | THE OLD WEST QUEEN ANNE MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDIOS
…..
THE PURSUIT OF BEAUTY:
BRAND | STORY | DESIGN | PACKAGE
Girvin BrandQuest®
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