Cassula Argentea – “jade plant” – Top-notch house plant. Stout trunk, sturdy limbs even on small plants. Will stay small in small containers. Can reach nine feet in time. – Sunset Western Garden Book

In a seeming greenhouse, lightless—
under water-waken dreams
the deep green touches me
through darkness as a liquid
filling all dimensions—

a field of vision, sightless
shadow of a shadow, merges
seamlessly into the dreaming
mind evoking it; awake or sleeping
open eyes or closed, the substances
of thought invade the vacant space.

So I wake in staring blackness
in the ditch where I had lain, and cry
The deep green jade a memory
of shades that press
their color to the surface
of the night before my eyes.

Not for hours will the dawn infuse
the fog that wets my face with light
enough to set the reaching fields
of living gems aglow again;

translucent succulence of juice
turgid capsules of ripeness
each thumby polyp pressing forth
alone from dense and swollen arms

that row on row will not betray
their presence to the warm downsloping
wind that sweeps before the sun.
In silence they await the day.