What Was Growing There All Along

The first few times I walked this land, it felt vast and unfamiliar.

Strange in a quiet way.

I kept noticing color in places I didn’t expect—

fanned shapes climbing along dying trees, layered like small shelves.

I didn’t know what I was looking at yet.

Just that it was everywhere.

Later, I learned the name.

Turkey Tail.

Turkey Tail

A fungi I had walked past more than once, without understanding.

And once I started seeing it, I couldn’t unsee it.

Then more appeared.

Oyster mushrooms, growing in soft clusters along fallen wood—different in summer than they are in fall.

Summer Oyster, so delicious

Chanterelles tucked into the forest floor.

Jelly ears, brown, translucent, and jiggly.

Jelly Ears

A flash of bright blue I still don’t fully understand.

And so many others I don’t have names for yet.

One night, I noticed on the fallen trees a faint glow…

The mycelium beneath, alive and quietly lighting the dark.

That was also the night I realized the forest floor was looking back at me.

Tiny points of light scattered across the ground—

not reflections, but crayfish eyes catching what little light there was.

It turns out the dying trees weren’t empty at all.

They were full of life—

just not the kind I had learned to see.

— Mayapple Farm