# Quote — Sheri S. Tepper, The Margarets

> “We have replanted five percent of the Brazilian desert where at one time jungles grew in leaf mold containing thousands of microorganisms atop hard, in fertile soil. When the trees were burned, so was the leaf mold, along with the microorganisms. The stony, sterile ground was barren. On these barrens we have planted hearty ‘starvation’-type coverage: many thorns, a few leaves. When these have had a few decades to accumulate organic detritus, we will plant slightly less hearty things at their roots. After another few decades, we can plant the next generation, and so on. It will take over two hundred years for each acre to achieve fifteen percent of the organic mass it once held. It will take a millennium or more for each acre to achieve anything approaching the fertile growth that was its glory as one of Earth’s chief oxygenators.”

- Author: [Sheri S. Tepper](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper.md)
- Book: [The Margarets](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/the-margarets.md)
- Page: 271
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sheri_S._Tepper#The_Margarets_(2007)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/the-margarets/we-have-replanted

## More from this book

> “That is the god of jihad,” she said. “That is the god of crusades. They are identical except for their names.”

p. 55 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/the-margarets/that-is-the.md)

> The place displayed luxury without comfort, ostentation without art. I hated it.

p. 398 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/the-margarets/the-place-displayed.md)

> Great wealth breeds great arrogance.

p. 115 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/the-margarets/great-wealth-breeds.md)