Field Guide to Missing Pieces

"The more closely I look, the more I doubt that there is a single whole, unblemished leaf left on the bush. I go out again and examine the leaves one by one [...] In the blue light I see scratched and peeled stems, leaves that are half-eaten, rusted, blighted, blistered, mined, snipped, smutted, pitted, puffed, sawed, bored, and rucked. Where have I been all summer while the world has been eaten?"

(Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 1999. p. 230-231)