On Redwood and other natural names (Gen 11:3)

for Lotta Lottas and other catkins

I am here in a land where a mushroom is not just a vulgar word for fungi, but a fleshy space where common names spell survival. Who would not prefer a Karl Johan (Boletus edulis) to a Sly Fly (Amanita phalloides), regardless of the taste or smell of the pulp, once they had learned to survive the two?

I live in a land where the alder, the tallest of which is altus, have red wood and flowers called catkins. Alders grow quickly and bees flock to their pollen. Come let us call it alder of the genus alnus, the deepest of which is altus, and have black wood and enrich the soil in burnt areas and in mines.

Come let us (also pronounced ‘lotass’ in other parts of the world, for the world no longer has but one tongue) move east and find a desert and settle there and chop and split wood, dig cubby holes, build a fire, and so live by that hearth, where nothing they plan will condescend and confuse us.