Madame Drain

In the forest, a young man in a salopette with a ginkgo leaf emblem is cleaning the fallen leaves. The forest is not private land. The man works here commissioned by Tokyo. He is speaking to sandpipers inarticulately and giving bread crumbs from the gap of the trees growing untouched. There is a pond made of groundwater. Agricultural tools are cluttered in a plastic greenhouse beside a disused field. The man walks cautiously like balancing on a balance beam along a muddy rut. Streams here and there are covered with concrete lids. The forest is full of tranquil secret steam.

90 years ago, the hospital moved to this land when there were almost no houses around. The various plants grown in the meantime now provide rich greenery, shade, seasonal flowers, and fertile land. There are people who met raccoons and rabbits. Also abundant in reptiles and amphibians such…