GRASS

I have no idea what started me on this book. But I'm glad I did and hope you will be too.

It's true that I'd been walking on grass and seeing it and touching it just about every day of my life. But I had just never thought about it - about how it is everywhere, grows back whatever you do, delights us - even in a way holds our beautiful planet together, a foundation for nature and art and humanity.

Once started I couldn't stop. Grass, that humble weed, is amazing.

Even it's evolution is fascinating - not 'simple' at all as I'd thought - and covers hundreds of different species, including (could you have guessed?) bamboo and sugarcane, and we couldn't live or feed ourselves without it. And then there is all the art and symbolism and poetry around grass in the imagination of our thoughts.

Where could it have come from, this miraculous part of earthly life? We may never learn the answer to that mystery, but at least we can track some of its adventures.

This volume aims to give some kind of introduction to the many many dimensions of this miraculous weed of ours. For this reason, none of the accounts can go very deep and many aspects remain to be uncovered (it left to you, if you so wish, to winkle out further information from the many sources listed at the end and elsewhere).

Despite its introductory nature however I hope that you enjoy reading this story as much as we have both enjoyed discovering it.