The Four-Leaf Clover Project

The Luck Hunt

Once upon a time, I was a rosy-cheeked young biologist, fresh out of uni and fresh out of work. Society and I weren’t the best of friends, but I wasn’t bothered by that so much. I spend my days making long walks on the windswept Dutch plains, and my nights watching TV. One of the habits I had picked up on those walks was to look for four-leaf clovers, a part of my deep-rooted ironical religious mentality. After some time, I had collected over 250 specimens, which I kept carelessly stacked away in plastic Ziploc bags in a big paper envelope with ‘The Treasury of Happiness’ written on it. That made a lot more sense in my native tongue of course, because originally, it read “De Schatkamer van Geluk” and in Dutch : geluk is the one word describing both luck as well as happiness.

Then one day, in those bleak times of unemployment and aimless wandering, the idea formed itself in my head: what if I’d start an eco-toxo-sociological, wide spectre, research project onto: The Occurrence of the Four-leaf Clover (Trifolium repens) world wide, paired to pollutants, bio-geographical data and the experienced luck of the people (Homo sapiens).

Immediately, a number of locations for field studies sprang to mind: Hawaii, Bora Bora, and other island paradises in the Pacific Ocean. That would be the perfect place to start my research project. Funding, visas, some shots and a sombrero were all I needed to begin my life’s work.

However, it was not to be. The evil-minded Fades thwarted everything by making me employed. For years, I slaved away in several dungeon-like offices, only going home for sleep and a quick stale sandwich eaten from a smudgy newspaper. The weekends were still available for field studies in my hometown, but Operation Shamrock, the global 4-L study was put the cay-bash on forever...

Or is it? Now that I find my employable status once again jeopardized, perhaps it is time to get my sombrero from the mothballs and pick up where I left off. Research projects are all the craze in modern art at the moment, so perhaps there’ll be some funding to expect from Peggy Guggenheim and her henchmen. I’ll start working on my thesis soon. Keep an eye out for me in Nature and the MoMa.

Cat. No. HN1001-1033. c. MSV.