NATURE

H.D. CARBERRY

We have neither Summer nor Winter

Neither Autumn nor Spring.

We have instead the days

When the gold sun shines on the lush green
canefields
Magnificiently.

The days when the rain beats like

bullets on the roofs

And there is no sound but the swish of

water in the gullies

And trees struggling in the high

Jamaica winds.

Also there are the days when leaves

fade from off guango trees
The guango is a large, wide
spreading tree, beautifully
proportioned. The black
pods are sticky and sweet,
caramel colured on the
inside. Excellent cattle food,
especially in dry weather. It
folds its leaves at night and
when it's cloudy, causing
moisture to collect under it.
This often makes the grass
under a guango tree
greener than the grass
around it.

And the reaped canefields lie bare and

fallow to the sun

adjective 1. (of land) plowed and left

unseeded for a season or more; uncultivated.
2. not in use; inactive: My creative energies
have lain fallow this year.
noun 3. land that has undergone plowing and
harrowing and has been left unseeded for one
or more growing seasons.
verb (used with object) 4. to make (land)
fallow for agricultural purposes.

But best of all there are the days when

the mango and the logwood blossom

Logwood. A valuable dye, the product of the logwood tree,

native to Central America, and grown also in the West Indies.
The best qualities come from Campeachy, but is only
obtained in small quantities. The wood deprived of its bark is
sent to market in the form of large blocks or billets. It is of a
dark, brownish-red color, of firm texture and so heavy as to
sink in water. The wood was introduced into Europe as a
dyeing substance soon after the discovery of America, but for
many years (from 1581 to 1662) its use in England was
prohibited by law, on account of the inferior dyes which at
first were produced from it. Logwood is prepared for use by
dyers in the form of small chips. The chips are moistened in
hot water and spread in thin layers till a gentle fermentation
sets up. These gradually become coated with brilliant metallic
green crystals which are at once accumulated and molded
into cakes, when it assumes a dark purplish color. The
principal use of logwood is for dyeing woolen goods, on which
it produces, with various mordants, shades of blue from a
light lavender to a dense blue-black, according to the amount
of logwood used and the number of dippings. Logwood blacks
are a standard product of print factories. They assume a
bright red tint by the action of dilute acids, a test by which
they can readily be distinguished from aniline and other fast
blacks. Log-wood blue is a color produced on woolen flannels
and yarns, mordanted with alum and cream of tartar. It is
similar in tone to indigo blue. The same color is sometimes
produced on cotton, but is seldom used on account of its
loose, fugitive character.

When bushes are full of the sound of

bees and the scent of honey

When the tall grass sways and shivers

to the slightest breath of air

When the buttercups have paved the

earth with yellow stars

and beauty comes suddenly and the

rains have gone.