et tu asparagus?

after months of gingerly handling sawtoothed briars, blackberry canes, and thistle stems, i reached for this gentle-looking asparagus fern, which i felt a little bad for, in the way that you feel bad for the charlie brown christmas tree, and like wounded dog you’ve taken pity on, it turned and bit me! i don’t know if you can see it clearly, but those little bristly branches, which back home are soft limp fronds, are actually thorny here. really, languedoc? asparagus? i can’t even touch asparagus?

wild asparagus: autignac, france