A crucial aspect of painting of course is observing. A special aspect of starting to paint, especially at an advanced age, is a change in appreciation in almost everything. The leaves of a banana plant (it is not a tree!) decay after a remarkably short time. Earlier in my life I would never have noticed the beauty of it.
Does the growing awareness of my own mortality play a role too?
Update March 2023: the plant is reaching the ceiling of my apartment. No fruits yet …
Update july 2023: Still no fruits. The mother plant and several slightly older ‘suckers’ DO produce bananas elsewhere in the Netherlands. In well tended gardens.
![Banana reaches ceeling](https://i0.wp.com/olddutchpainter.works/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Banana_march_2023.jpg?resize=600%2C800&ssl=1)
Update September 2023: still no bananas, but flowering. In this photo you see things that already look like bananas. However, those are male, inedible specimens.
![](https://i0.wp.com/olddutchpainter.works/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/2023_09_21_banana.jpg?resize=600%2C701&ssl=1)
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