The cotton plant I'm sharing in this post isn't growing on the riverbank as my mother used to tell me. When she was a child, her mother and grandmother would join her in picking cotton, cleaning it themselves and spinning it into thread so they could sew their clothes when they could afford fabric. They didn't go so far as to make fabric, but they did spin their thread in a very rudimentary way.
This is a way to learn a little about how my grandmothers used nature to obtain resources for their daily activities. These are my mother's memories, and she would tell me about the times they went on these adventures—of course, I call them adventures. In those days, it was a way to earn money as part of the cotton-picking group. It was very hard work for women, but many joined in these kinds of activities to make money. Besides being strong, like cotton, it was hot, and the consequences of the heat were illnesses because, in addition to the heat, itching would occur on the skin. Since it was on the riverbank, at the end of the day they would throw themselves into the river, their bodies still hot from the day's activity. Their bodies very hot, and the river water very cold.
The cotton plant has its characteristics, as I show in the images: it has leaves, flowers, and fruit. Then that fruit opens and becomes a cotton boll. This one isn't on the riverbank; it's in a place where I usually walk in the mornings. It's one of the places I frequent. Its flowers caught my attention, and when I got closer to examine it, I realized it was a cotton plant.
I think it's great that it's there so that the children and young people who pass by every morning can observe it and see what the plant looks like. That's what I think, although what I observe on those mornings when I walk there is a rush of children running late for school, with their mothers following behind, because it's near a school. That's why I say they might not even have noticed it.
The good thing is that it's there, it has its space, and even though it doesn't look like it's being watered, only nourished by the rain when it does rain, it stays green, offering its flowers, fruit, and the cottony tufts, as shown in the pictures.
This reminds me that we're always rushing around on the paths we travel, so much so that we don't even pay attention to the details that nature gives us. How many times have I passed by without noticing; it's the only one on that path I take, though there are other species. It's wonderful that it's a plant that survives despite the strong sun on the days it's in the shade, and despite that, it gives us its beauty and shows us how the fruit becomes a cottony tuft.
My mother told me that they used the cottony tufts, taken directly from the plant, to apply powder to their faces, powders they also made themselves.
