Curious By Nature
Updated: Aug 26
Where Chaotic Green Spirit Really Began
The world becomes more interesting when you ask why.
For me, I think it all began with giant leaves beside a small stream.
A Walk I Never Forgot
When I was a young child, sometime in the early 2000s, if my mum had to work and nobody else in the family was available, I would often be taken to a local nursery.
I hated it.
Not because there was anything wrong with it. Quite the opposite, really. I remember the staff being kind, and according to my mum, I loved it when I was younger. But by then I'd started school. I had friends, I wanted to be at home, and like so many children growing up in the early 2000s, the world outside felt far more exciting.
There is, however, one memory from those days that has never left me.
Every so often, the staff would take us for a walk along a nearby nature trail.
I'll be honest, it didn't have the most magical beginning. The first stretch ran alongside the back of a sewage treatment works, and we would walk in pairs down the rather unpleasant-smelling path.
Thankfully, it didn't last long.
Soon the smell faded behind us, and the woodland seemed to close in from both sides.
The Giant Leaves
To the left was a steep bank tangled with trees, brambles and nettles. To the right, the ground dropped towards the river below. Further along, the woodland narrowed until the river became little more than a quiet stream winding beside the path.
And there, right on the edge of that stream, stood a mystery that has stayed with me for more than twenty years.
Even now, every time I walk that path, I still look.
At the time, I had no idea what the plants were. All I knew was that they were enormous. Their giant leaves stretched out over the water like umbrellas, so large that I could never see into the centre.
Years later I learned they were Giant Rhubarb.
But knowing their name never answered the question that mattered most.
What lived inside?
Curious by Nature
I don't remember deciding that something lived beneath those leaves.
I don't remember anyone telling me there was.
As far as my childhood mind was concerned, it simply felt true.
But those giant plants belonged to the Fair Folk.
Whether they rested there, danced there or simply passed through, I couldn't have told you. I remember talking about it with the other children as though it were the most natural thing in the world. There wasn't really a debate. We accepted it and carried on with our walk.
Looking back, I think that was one of the first times I truly experienced wonder.
Not because I had found an answer.
Because I'd found a mystery.
Twenty Years Later
Twenty years later, I still slow down when I pass that stream.
I still find myself glancing beneath those towering leaves.
If anything, I'm even more curious now than I was then.
The difference is that today I have something my younger self never did.
Books.
Research.
Centuries of folklore.
Historical records.
The opportunity to follow those questions wherever they lead.
Questions like...
Who are the Tylwyth Teg?
Why are certain places linked with the Fair Folk?
How do plants become woven into folklore?
Where Chaotic Green Spirit Began
Perhaps those giant leaves never really let go of me.
Perhaps that walk was the beginning of something much bigger.
Chaotic Green Spirit isn't simply about nature, folklore or history.
It's about following curiosity wherever it leads.
Sometimes the answer is scientific.
Sometimes it's historical.
Sometimes it lives within folklore, belief or tradition.
And sometimes the most valuable thing isn't finding an answer at all.
It's discovering a question that stays with you for twenty years.
If you are curious by nature, or even just curious about nature, you are in
the right place. 💚
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