/lit/ - Literature

>>22909484
>As for the worms that will one day gnaw on your flesh, I can only confess to them my most sincere envy
That's a silly reference to the tribute at the beginning of Brás Cubas by Machado de Assis. Maybe a fellow brazilian could catch it, idk. Well, here's the other story's excerpt:

It is natural to pass through that street and have attention captured by the humble and vast garden of bromeliads, ageratum, almond trees, lilies, and the like. The gardener is Mr. Camilo, a reasonably famous figure in the neighborhood, and in whose medical report, kept in the back of the last drawer of a dresser, his schizophrenia is noted. This report was made a few years ago. Before that, he was not inclined towards plants until he heard the sound of a camellia, and his life changed from there forever.

That plants could speak to him was a shock, but not for his family. They dismissed the idea with jokes; no one believed. Later, he was equally discouraged by the plants themselves from explaining further. Why or how this happened, he did not know, despite having suspicions and convictions then and now, later finding better explanations than his own. As there were plants everywhere, of one nature or another, but his ability to hear their thoughts, diverse and noisy, did not have an on-off switch, his problems multiplied. Constantly bombarded by these sounds, he had to learn to coexist with them. At first, he covered his ears even in front of others, arousing curiosity. His classmates at the time naturally asked why, and as his excuses were washed, they threatened to spread his peculiar ways throughout the school. Embarrassed, Camilo said what it was, the talking of the plants. His classmates picked some stray flowers from the school bushes to test such an improbable claim. That's when Camilo explained that the plants didn't speak words, didn't think in terms recognizable to us linguistically. They were close to noises, some so sophisticated that they seemed like music, and from these sounds, Camilo could only interpret — that's all. Their reaction was contrary to expected. One laughed, caught off guard with no other option. The other two looked at each other, trying to understand if it wasn't a clever trick employed by Camilo. Over time, they forgot, also because their plant-friendly friend stopped covering his ears, and, in fact, in the end, this had little to do with what a hearing block could prevent.