These photos of leaf fragments are from a series about the flux in the local Waitpinga bushland in the Fleurieu Peninsula of South Australia. The slowly, decaying leaves in this pocket of the “natural” world –it is ex-grazing country — discloses the impermanence of things — plants, trees, animals etc in natural being.

In classical Japanese aesthetics the category of mono no aware (the pathos of things) refers to the transient nature of existence and “the awareness of impermanence”. This aesthetic category basically means, or implies, an awareness of the fleeting, impermanent nature of life.

Mono no aware implies a heightened sensitivity to the passage of time in relation to something fragile and fleeting in the context of flux. It incorporates the aesthetic tinge of sadness arising from an appreciation of the impermanent, with flux being the fundamental condition of existence. So impermanence is not just accepted but celebrated.