Becoming-Flame
Diana V. Almeida
The surprising fact about orchids
according to several specialists
is their adaptability their mimetic
becoming-wasp to spread seeds
pollen across a given territory
such rhizomatic play increases
combination as multiplicity grows
frustrating all modes of coding
held in our cabinets of curiosities
that still show the world as index a
set of labels to comfort the inquiring mind
indeed their genetic axis of re-
production relies on oddity and wonder
seducing collectors to madness
as the orchid fever testified
under Queen Victoria and her court
praise God
nowadays explorers are just keen on knowledge
since we risk losing these species without ever knowing
they existed as the Senior Research Leader so eloquently put it
when looking for a blue orchid last seen
80 years ago the expedition was struck by
the iridescent red lip-flame-flower flaring in-
side the crater of a dormant volcano
in Waigeo on the Raja Ampat (or Four Kings) Islands
an archipelago in Bird’s Head Peninsula Indonesia
it belonged to the Dendrobium genus and was named lanci-
labium subspecies wuryae after the country’s Second
Lady also dedicated to the preservation game
but since the plane of consistency
is outside all multiplicities
taxonomy is by definition doomed
and who knows when the becoming-
flame orchid will call back the fires—
This text was inspired by a scientific discovery related by Rachael Funnel in “Hunt For Lost Blue Orchid On Extinct Volcano Finds Brand New Fiery Red Species,” January 11, 2024.
Accessed on January 28, 2025 https://www.iflscience.com/hunt-for-lost-blue-orchid-on-extinct-volcano-finds-brand-new-fiery-red-species-72403
I also quote Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1987.
Bio-note
Diana V. Almeida has a MA and a PhD in American Literature and Culture, Faculty of Letters, University of Lisbon, where she was Invited Assistant Professor (2007-2020), teaching Literature, Contemporary Art, Visual Culture. She is undertaking a Transdisciplinary post-doctoral project in Photography, Gender and Museum Studies, founded by FCT. She is currently developing two creative-research projects at ULICES/CEAUL — “House of Light” (a poetic and photographic reading of Mary Oliver’s symbolic use of light in her texts), and “(con)Join the Sea” (a photographic rendering of the aquatic dialogue between human corporeality and the ocean waters). Diana has published poems and photography in Cosmos e Casas (Urutau, 2021); reflections and exercises about inner coherence in O Compasso do Amor: Guia para Alinhamento Interno (Edições Mahatma, 2025). She works as a freelance writer, translator, photographer, healer, and cultural mediator. https://dianavalmeida.com