THE SPRING IS BEAUTIFUL in California. Valleys in which the fruit blossomsare fragrant pink and white waters in a shallow sea. Then the first tendrilsof the grapes swelling from the old gnarled vines, cascade down to coverthe trunks. The full green hills are round and soft as breasts. And on thelevel vegetable lands are the mile-long rows of pale green lettuce and thespindly little cauliflowers, the gray-green unearthly artichoke plants. (查看原文)
And all the time the fruit swells and the flowers break out in long clusterson the vines. And in the growing year the warmth grows and the leavesturn dark green. The prunes lengthen like little green bird's eggs, and thelimbs sag down against the crutches under the weight. And the hard littlepears take shape, and the beginning of the fuzz comes out on the peaches.Grape blossoms shed their tiny petals and the hard little beads becomegreen buttons, and the buttons grow heavy. The men who work in thefields, the owners of the little orchards, watch and calculate. The year isheavy with produce. And the men are proud, for of their knowledge theycan make the year heavy. They have transformed the world with theirknowledge. The short, lean wheat has been made big and productive. Littlesour apples h... (查看原文)
There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure here that topples all our success. The fertile earth, the straight tree rows, the sturdy trunks, and the ripe fruit. And children dying of pellagra must die because a profit cannot be taken from an orange. And coroners must fill in the certificates--died of malnutrition--because the food must rot, must be forced to rot. (查看原文)
