Cara Davenport: Week 1

I decided on the cabbage tree right outside the front gate of the convent. There's a clear view of it from my window, and in the morning and afternoons starlings sit and hang upside down out from its leaves, eating the seedy clumps that branch out from the fronds. I chose it because I could remember its name, and I like knowing the names of things. It's also one of the trees that, since it looks like a palm tree, gives this Pennsylvania-esque farmland an exotic, jungle-like feeling. There's a very simple, clean look about it.