Berlin environment blog
May 4, 2017![Dirty street sign in Berlin](https://static.dw.com/image/38677502_800.webp)
We're always banging on about greening our cities – the places, let us not forget, that we spent a lot of time and money graying - as if that were something only the mighty human hand has the power to do. Really? I don't think so. And nature, I am certain, would agree.
The signs, you see, are clear. Or in this case, not. Like an act of natural vandalism, the living surface of this one serves as an almost velvety reminder that for all our efforts to control the environment, to train it to dance to our own tune, it is a force in its own right.
It will emerge through the cracks of our concrete lives to leave its mark, creep out after dark to reclaim the space we claimed from it. And in so doing, it quietly, subtly shows us who is really in charge. Oh rebellious nature, maker of environmental poetry, your pitch is perfect.