The Illinois Parables
Deborah Stratman
San Sebastian is a tourist city. Its IVF clinics and its non-native plants attract thousands of tourists every year. Talking with Shashi, I started to create connections between fertility treatment campaigns and the way banana plants reproduce. I wanted to know if the people of San Sebastian knew how these plants had arrived there. Who would consider it important to know the origins of a plant that serves only as decoration? A plant whose products have been the cause of violence, corruption and perhaps exploitation.