From ancient up to modern times, the Orient to the Occident, palms are revered as wondrous plants of strange beauty, with lush coconuts and dates dangling from their dreadlock fronds.

Jonathan Martin assembled an unlikely anthology of drawings consisting of the unspoken, phantasmal aspects of being a palm. To be exact, a palm in the brains of a sharp-witted, moony collector of comprehensive socio-cultural myths, philosophies, folk tales and superstitions.

His book is a sober celibration of the manifoldness of the arcane phenomenon called Arecaceae (or simply palm tree), a trip through Mesopotamia, ancient temples, hieroglyphs, the I Ching, Samarra, Egyptian dance and cryptic occultations at a palm’s hands.