Green City (April26)

Look there and see. Look on. Keep yourself from gaping, you're doing well.

The fellow kitted out in the corporate uniform—white polo with green leaves rising from the extremities, the sleeves, front lower band and more profuse again on the lower behind. Grey slacks; matching shoes. 

But in fact not a corporate cleaning kit. No. Look again…

More specifically, Garden Maintenance. Hence, the leaves. (Corporate clean is usually blue or yellow.)

Catching the fellow first-up gave the wrong impression. Trolley with a couple large plastic buckets, parked beside the pots in the library forecourt that lined the path toward the cafe.

Mex-Latino type the initial impression; giving the smile added again. Friendly sort up for a joke, fun to be round. 

Closer up the correction for the Sub-continent; West coast round Goa. (Zapata moustaches had penetrated the four corners now.)

Greening the World We Live In waved over the rear of the polo... In this company's case, greening & polishing. 

The contract with the municipal authorities which oversaw the National Library building & grounds stipulated keeping the plants weed-free, watered & fresh-looking. Therefore dusting & polishing the elephant-ears of the potted plants down in the forecourt by the cafe. (Kinda promoted growth too.)

With the rag out wiping and scrubbing, one had been misled. 

Bent at the work. Circular motion adding polish. Unpleasant taskmaster the Super. All in a mistaken first flash.

Over-filling the pots once or twice, man bent with the rag to soak up the spillage. 

Urban gardener. Civic pride. Certainly in Sin’pore. Bucket-loads in Singapore.

A report in the paper recently on a model Chinese city that had made great strides in re-vegetation. In that case, the choice of trees to plant had proved unfortunate. The model was Singapore. Clean, as every visitor knew—despite some ill-discipline in rabble Geylang.