1 October 2008
5:10
Eastside Lawn, Willamette University, Salem, OR
As I walk across the grass from Matthews to the lawn the grass is soft and smooth against my feet, in places the ground caves down into almost a natural bowl. In these bowls water has collected and the mud seeps up between my toes, it is a strange feeling. Directly in front of where I am sitting is Montag Center, people walk in and out constantly, some with laundry, some with homework. In the corner of the lawn there is a tree that has been cinched off from the natural world. This tree is not a particularly large tree, but it has been surrounded by a triangle of sidewalk cutting it off from any other plants. The ground around this tree is littered with woodchips and fallen leaves, sparse clumps of grass, and a few twigs. Where some trees branch smoothly off into an arching shape this tree seems to turn abruptly from trunk to branches with no smooth transition. The clumps of wild grass around this tree seem so unnatural, they are plotted in each of the three corners where the sidewalk come together, they look so sad and wilted, almost like a graying head of hair.