Succulent emerald of newborn grass
Mossy, moist pillow at the foot of spruce
Lime green willow
spraying graceful arcs,
avocado butter rich.
Green is
the Mother’s breath,
her flowing hair,
her billowing garments.
Green is her blood,
pulsating and undulating,
nourishing and smothering,
dying and birthing herself
again and again.
In April, our fields and meadows in Virginia turn bright green. Nourished by soaking spring rains, juicy grasses seem to grow overnight. The soft haze of tiny new leaves hovers in shrubs and trees. My eyes inhale the color green, my need for green may be as urgent as my need for water. In fact, the two are interrelated - without water, there would be very little, if any, green. Spring’s fresh green vegetation feeds the cells in my body with its vibrancy. The green energy feels expansive – anything seems possible this time of year, spring awakens my own creative energies.
During the Middle Ages, Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179) used the Latin word viriditas to capture the vitality and fecundity of new spring growth. Hildegard was a widely respected German Benedictine abbess, writer, composer, and herbalist. Viriditas symbolized the life force manifesting so vividly in gardens, forests, and farmland. It represented “the greening power of God,” which resided in everything, including humans. Beyond the green powers of Nature, viriditas could also be cultivated internally, in our bodies and souls. By consuming plant food, the divine life force was transferred from plants to humans. Viriditas eventually came to describe physical and spiritual health in humans. Hildegard’s life-long study and deeply intuitive understanding of the plants evolved into the European medicinal tradition called Klosterheilkunde or Monastic Medicine.
Modern science teaches us that green plants manufacture their food through photosynthesis, by using the pigment chlorophyll which gives plants their green color. Chlorophyll has one main function: to absorb sunlight and transfer it to energy-storing molecules in the plant. The stored energy converts carbon dioxide and water into glucose, an essential nutrient that helps the plant to grow. Additionally, this process of photosynthesis releases oxygen into the air, essential for most other life forms. We humans depend on photosynthesis for oxygen to breathe, our energy, and to grow and repair tissue and bone. Chlorophyll can be considered the foundation of life on Earth. Hildegard knew this a thousand years ago!
We are reminded once again that plant food keeps us vital and healthy. Greens, especially wild foraged greens rich in chlorophyll, have impressive nutrient values and meet our body’s need to transition from heavier winter fare to lighter spring foods. Wild greens such as chickweed, dandelion, cleavers, and purple deadnettle are abundant right now and make a tasty addition to almost any meal. Their flavors wake up our taste buds: tart and peppery, lemony and mild, or sweet and floral. I love making green smoothies with these spring herbs and enjoy how every cell of my body inhales this green goodness making viriditas a living, breathing reality.
A beautiful visual of green spirituality