Elemental analyses of the orange paint
showed that it contains particles largely made up
of sulphur and arsenic. This is how Dutch masters
rendered an orange. When does metaphor appear in
the fossil record? New worlds invented the common
orange lichen, Xanthoria parietina,
long before angiosperms. Foreign fruit inspired
Old World palates. We renamed our palette. But for things
resembling a still and studied life, metaphor
fails. Hoping for sempiternal beauty, Linnaeus
quoted Pliny on Bellis perennis. Now Daisy finds
herself as we find her: picking small star-shaped flowers
of family Asteraceae, sipping orange
pekoe year after year. Waiting for a renaissance.