I haven't known any but I've surely heard of people committing suicide before. Stories of such events tend to linger on in rumours and become embellished in legacies. I once thought I had a suicidal pet turtle, too. No matter which table or surface I put it on, it always madly dashed towards the edge. I never did figure out whether it expected to find water off the edge or just felt like testing my reflexes. But yesterday was the first time I had ever seen a suicidal plant. After spending a week in Toronto, I came home to find that one of my two plants had literally jumped out of its pot. There were no roots attached and the base of the stem was soft and severed.

I've known for quite some time that my thumbs are far from green. If green had an opposite, that's what they'd be. A few years back, a neighbour had asked me to plant-sit for her while she and her family were on vacation. She had given me a trial week beforehand as there were many plants to care for. Gradually, she moved all but two of the plants away from my apartment and back to hers. I guess she either didn't care for the two remaining plants or deemed they were hardy enough to withstand my abuse. She eventually gave them to me when she moved away. The one that passed away yesterday was one of these that remained. I'm not sure what I could have done to save it, or whether I did anything wrong to begin with as its leaves are still green and turgid. I guess even plants can have bad days and choose to end life prematurely.