Fading Green

Fading Green is inspired by a poem by Forugh Farrokhzad (1934- 1967), whose striking imagery speaks of neglect, denial, and a slow decay.

Written in the context of 1950s Iranian society before revolution, the poem portrays a collective blindness and neglect to the quiet erosion of life, solidarity, social awareness, and responsibility. Yet decades later, in an era marked by war across the globe, human crisis, environmental collapse, and the erosion of human rights, the poem feels less like a reflection of a specific time and place and more like a mirror held up to humanity itself.

Fading Green therefore draws freely from the poem’s imagery: a garden whose heart swells under a relentless sun, a mind slowly emptied of green memories. The music reflects a world where care has been replaced by indifference, where the essence of what makes us human (care, empathy, responsibility, and attentiveness) fades almost imperceptibly. The piece is an invitation to listen closely to that fading, and to question what remains when no one is left to think of the flowers.

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No one thinks of the flowers.

No one thinks of the fish.

No one wants to believe the garden is dying,

that its heart has swollen in the heat of this sun,

that its mind drains slowly of its lush memories.

(Forugh Farrokhzad, translated from Persian by Sholeh Wolpé, University of Arkansas Press)

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Photo by William Scruggs on Unsplash