the point where the petiole or the stem of the chinese fan palm leaf ends and the leaf begins. it's like a burst of light, especially in young leaves when the coloration is between very light and dark green. nowhere is mother nature more organized than in the shapes and forms of its flora.
this leaf is large, much larger than the ones we used to play with back in the old country when i was still a young girl. the older women in our compound would use this as a fan during hot days, but they wrapped the stem with old newspaper or rags as they have little thorny protrusions that if one wasn't too careful, could end up with little pricks in the hand. one time, an older cousin who was rather bossy with us younger ones, played with us. she said she was queen and we should fan her with the palm leaves. so we did. but the leaves probably had tiny spiders in them and at the end of the playtime she was covered with hives. she really made for an ugly queen. she also never played with us again!
