Both of my grandmothers were excellent gardeners. They grew tomatoes (a notoriously temperamental plant), figs, basil, mint, and a plethora of other plants meant to attract and nurture beautiful creatures such as butterflies and hummingbirds. They, perhaps more than anyone else I know, had green thumbs.
In the United States, many accept as a fact of gardening life that those with the secret power of the “green thumb” are the ones whose gardens and farms will thrive. These people have a knack for supporting plants. And for those who do not have this green thumb — me — we simply lament the lack of this gardening prerequisite before giving up on plants entirely.
But no matter how large a role this term “green thumb” plays in colloquial conversations, it is not a scientific phenomenon. So what, then, does it mean to have a green thumb?
I do not know if Mohammed, the caretaker of the High Atlas Foundation’s tree nursery in Azilal, has ever heard the term “green thumb” or if there is even something comparable in Moroccan colloquial Arabic. But he, in wholly embracing his role as........