Los Angeles is more of a prickly pear cactus than an orange, cactus being natural to the region anyway. I presently live on Orange Grove Avenue in the San Fernando Valley. From the early 1920s to the late 1950s, the Valley had up to fifteen thousand acres of a fruit the Spanish first seeded in California in the 1500s. Now the orange groves are gone, replaced by single-family homes, palm-tree lined streets, strip malls, warehouses. Due to years of drought, this past year my family removed all the grass from the front yard and planted succulent plants, sage, an elderberry tree, mint and other healing herbs, including the Yerba Santa (eriodictyon californicum), used by native healers in the state for generations. And, of course, prickly pear cactus, with origins on the continent going back ten thousand years. A friend of mine living in London, originally from New Zealand, came by recently and took photos. I said, ‘Nothing much to see, dude’. He gazed at me, paused, remarked, ‘This is exotic where I’m from’. Be part of the next show https://staging.f.chat/TKYz
