Red Before Green is a platform for those who respect our environment and its inhabitants to share experiences, tips, and practical advice. We are committed to sustainability and survival and eschew excess. We are queer, compassionate, imperfect humans who are constantly learning and striving to be humble through it all.
Ultimately, it’s a name rooted in nature. The concept plays on an assumption about the sequence of colors in the leaves of plants: green leaves turn red when they are sick or in the senescence of autumn. But there are other reasons for redness in plants; for example, sometimes new growth is red instead of green. The idea is that we don’t know until we open ourselves to possibilities and dig deeper.
We landed on the name as a declaration of sequence to challenge normative assumptions of how things “usually are” or “should be”; to upend, reverse, and queer our expectations of ourselves and others. And going back to nature, hearkening to fire, burning, destruction and turmoil in order to seed something new. Like a sequoia.
We consider this concept to be a philosophy, a worldview that we do our best to apply when traveling and in general. We try not to make assumptions about people, practices, cultures. When we don’t know, we consider asking. If asking doesn’t feel right, we look for other ways to inform ourselves or we just have to be okay with not understanding.
Our fuel
Neglecting small things under the pretext of wanting to accomplish large ones is the excuse of a coward.
Alexandra David-Neel
Culture does not make people. People make culture. If it is true that the full humanity of women is not our culture, then we can and must make it our culture.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
People have the right to call themselves whatever they like. That doesn’t bother me. It’s other people doing the calling that bothers me.
Octavia E Butler
Red Before Green 