CACTUS (2026

A cactus knitted from olive-green yarn is born into a world where love has a price. Turned away at the fountain, applauded then abandoned in the cotton fields, it walks through cisterns, a dead city by a river and a storm that finally breaks it — until a small yellow bird, a rain that touches like a hand, and a mother who waits with an open palm teach it something no applause could.