maple

 At the far end of town, trying to find a new path along the valley so as to avoid having to walk along the busy and noisy streets. Follow a steep little street, called the Kellerstraße in the hope that there will be a turnoff somewhere. The path is lined with high cost developments, sold to those who probably cannot afford them. The traffic noise volume is high here, there is a junction down below between three trunk roads and the main road from the town centre.

Admire the uniform green of a stretch of lawn.

Upon closer scrutiny see that this is fake grass, a plastic imitation of the real thing. It is strange, all this perfection looks like a three-dimensional rendering on a computer. Perfectly plastered white walls, neat little metal borders.

Out of the culverts in the centre of all this green self-seeded maple trees are growing. In the middle of all this artificiality, even they look unreal. They are alive, here where nothing else is alive.