Seven Years of Jade

I moved into my first apartment in Rochester 7 years ago today. It was a hot day then, like it is now, but the heat wasn’t enough of a deterrent to stop me from moving five times since that day (three more times in the first two years!), every single move in the heat of the spring or summer, damn my luck.

I inherited a jade plant that first year, and I do my best to keep it alive. It was an ugly little weak misshapen plant, but small memento of sorts, a treasure that has lived in all of the places I’ve lived. Finally, in the last few years (year 6, year 5) it has started to generate more and more branches, a great achievement from that straight stalk of jade that it had been for years.

This year, I’ve been admiring its growth more and more readily; every new shoot and leaf is noted, as if it’s my own head cultivating a new dreadlock. It’s obvious that it’s thriving as it rarely drops leaves anymore, and it doesn’t seem to mind rarely being dusted. I hope that by the time I’m really old, jade here will be really big.

I kind of ran out of paper this year, Jade spiked 3″ and started to branch off in two directions at the tip. There continue to be signs of new growth all along the main trunk, little leaves starting to poke through as the start of new branches. This is the most insignificant of any post, but happy seven years of Rochester to me.