Composition 5

“The time has come,” the Walrus said,
“To talk of many things:
Of shoes – and ships – and sealing wax –
Of cabbages – and kings –

Maybe Lewis Carroll’s Walrus was not as nonsensical as his rhyme might suggest when he put the apparently humble cabbage next to a king. With their beautiful leaves, intricate veining, gloriously subtle tonal variations, and varieties of texture, it is perhaps no wonder that the Dutch considered them a symbol of beauty beneath the surface, or something that is both ordinary and ostentatious as the same time.

Much clearer is their position as queen of the brassicas, and by extension, of all autumn plants. With its play of textures and palette of greens and silvery grey, this glorious end-of-year cornucopia captures the abundance of the harvest before the dead of winter.

From a weathered urn set upon a French draper’s bench pour out cabbages – green, Savoy, black cavolo nero – and artichokes. Green hydrangea, green-grey sage and thyme, and silvery fronds of lavender foliage and old man’s beard provide a backdrop, and around the base of the urn, purple carrots and pumpkins complete the autumnal display.

But look closely, and you’ll see that in amid this abundance, the winter is already on its way. A large yellowing leaf cascades over the bench, decomposing, and bugs – a caterpillar, beetles – have made a feast of many more. Eyeing them greedily, are two open-beaked crows, approaching like harbingers of the winter to come.