In Japan they could measure time without watches, using the growth of moss, or the shapes formed by rust. “Maybe they know that, and that is why they let it grow”, said Okamoto. And he also says that misunderstanding moss and rust as lack of cleanliness, “as it happens elsewhere” and not as a sign of life, is a symptom of a numbed-down sensitivity.

​

Using moss as a measure of time would certainly be useless for immediate, urgent things, Okamoto told me. But it would do for those things that really matter.