The Soul of Plants: Spirituality and Botany in Amado Nervo and José Juan Tablada

Abstract

This article analyzes the conceptualization of plants and their relationship with spirituality in Amado Nervo’s “El alma de las plantas” (1919) and José Juan Tablada’s “Los árboles son sagrados” (1921). I argue that these two brief essays share an intellectual strategy: first, they critically examine humanity’s inability to appreciate plants’ utmost relevancy, then they offer diverse lines of reasoning to highlight the importance of plant life and, finally, they similarly propose that vegetal beings are endowed with a spiritual or sacred dimension that must be acknowledged and venerated. Throughout the article I delve into the scientific and cultural sources undergirding Nervo’s and Tablada’s argumentation, while also identifying the botanical knowledge marginalized by them.

Keywords: botany, literature, philosophy, religion, Mexican writers