Defoliation Defended
[The mythology and biology of defoliation]
Defoliation is the botanical version of the emergence of the butterfly from the pupa and the rising of the phoenix (also a peacock) from the ashes. The farmer sustains his existence by giving life to a new crop of cotton. A healthy cotton crop must be pest and disease free. Defoliation can occur naturally or it can be induced. Agent Orange was a defoliant used by the U.S. military as part of its herbicidal warfare program. One of the most significant characteristics of organic cotton is that defoliation is allowed to occur naturally or through non-chemical means.
[Defoliation and Human Health]
Defoliation is to be cured of a chronic illness. It is to overcome mental breakdown (the stalk and boll of the human brain and spinal column) and rise out of that struggle as a new person. The boll of the cotton plant is also the ovum. Defoliation is the hysterectomy of a cotton plant. Defoliation is the purging of multiple personalities.
[Defoliation and Relationships]
Defoliation is a clean slate after a failed relationship.
[Non biological Symbiosis and agricultural Roles]
Defoliation of cotton is a symbiotic act. The farmer needs the stalk of the cotton plant to die in order to harvest the white crop inside the boll. Prior to modern harvesting equipment and big agriculture, he would hire and/or enslave laborers to harvest the cotton. This symbiotic relationship was a requirement to the sustainability of cotton production. When slavery became illegal, sharecropping and tenant farming emerged. In states like Texas, where cattle grazing land was being repurposed for the cultivation of cotton, the farmer had to look elsewhere for the labor, the bracero program. This program was an institutionalized form of slavery.
[Cotton's Role in the Emergence of American Music]
Defoliation is also the emancipation of the slave. It is the moment at which the music of the African-American slave is preserved, covered, repurposed and given a new home in the genre of Jazz. Jazz would then evolve into the blues, pop and rock n' roll. Defoliation is the release of sound from the instrument and vocal chords.
[Defoliation and Florence]
Defoliation is the story of Florence and her eventual flight to Egypt to meet her soul mate. Her heart and spirit are free. She no longer walks in her sleep. She is confident and proud.