Ink

Ink was where it started and ink was what ruined everything, over time, of course. From a human perspective that is, relatively speaking, it took a long time, but in the greater scheme of things it was a fleeting glimpse and it was gone. I refer to the Amazon. That was then.

The 70s and 80s were fast paced, glossy and full of promise. The concept of globalisation being planted, a small toxic seed that would take root in the planet's soft and largely unsullied and virgin soil. It spread faster than anyone could imagine, reaching its searching hungry tendrils, the more it was fed the more it would grow, but it had no limits.

Also, to grow it needed to be consumed, the more it was consumed the deeper it entered the psyche of society, society became accustomed to it, was seduced into loving it and as this society grew and moved, it demanded and in fact needed, to have the comforts it had gradually become associated with.

And ink was what made it. Over and over again the same beautiful message shouted out from the printed press, the colourful screens, the huge relentless billboards. Aspire to this, consume this, desire this, be this, be me, love me, love you, take. Everywhere society looked it would see the same beauty…. Soft red lips, white teeth, the hint of a tongue, pretty fingernails, fingers, softly, jealously guarding their burger.

For it needed to be guarded, it was perfect. The mouth senses the perfection, though you can't quite see, it salivates, inside the dark mouth the glands are yielding their juices.

The bread, a gentle enticing and rich meadow flower yellow and beach sand brown..

Carefully sprinkled with perfectly sized angel dust sesame seeds, attracting the eye, surprising it, comforting it.

The eye is drawn downwards to what is sitting between these perfectly crafted pieces of bread.

First a hint of green, pure nature, a wish for health, a better life, the life you can have, cool, grown in perfect harmony with nature, nature itself.

It floats upon the epitome of human desire, the proud apex of our evolution.

The meaty burger, a generous sacrifice.

Its Brazilwood reds blend to sunset orange, a hint of backyard barbecue brown, droplets of juice. Eat me it whispers.

I will always be here for you. You need no other. I will wait for you everywhere..

I know this story, it was I that proposed the unique Brazilwood red for the painting of the burger in the advertising. It was so successful that the Brazilwood, the only source of the burger red, increased in value and caused the most widespread deforestation movement the Amazon was ever to experience. There weren’t many of the trees and they were hard to reach, so roads were built, it's how it goes.

The demand for the burgers increased exponentially and beef prices rose accordingly. Fortunately though, with the deforestation large swathes of land became available for cattle rearing so the demand was met.

The issue, and of course there is always an issue, is that it has been impossible to synthesise the Brazilwood color, its only means of creation is through its extraction from the tree sap. So costs for both the burgers and the advertising are having to go up as we replant the millions of hectares of lost rainforest to have crops of Brazilwood for our complicated ink based needs.

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