I bought a plant.

I bought a plant a few weeks ago. It's a yellow palm, a popular tropical plant that can be kept indoors, with minimal need for water and sunlight. These were the characteristics that appealed the most--minimal need for anything. I wanted a low-maintenance plant to add a pop of green to my otherwise whitewashed, modern-themed condo. This yellow palm seemed like it would do the trick.

A few days after I bought the plant, I noticed a few edges of some of the leaves starting to wither and turn slightly brown. 'Not to worry,' I thought, and added some water. Immediately, the leaves looked refreshed. The next day, I dragged the plant to the sun, to provide it with some vitamin D, which I thought might help enliven the plant up further.

One or two weeks later, I noticed that there were more edges that were curling and browning. I felt the soil to see if it needed more water. It was black and moist; still wet. I knew not to saturate the plant too much, because too much water can also be a bad thing for a plant such as this. I dragged the pot out to the sun once more.

And yet the browning at the edges spread upwards. They spread and spread until a few of the leaves were entirely brown and dry. I couldn't stop staring and muttering over these leaves. Was my plant dying? Did it need more water? More sun? Mind, nearly 95% of the plant was in prime condition. It was a beautiful jewel green color, and totally flourishing. But I simply couldn't stop fixating on the 5% of the plant that was going bad. What was I to do?

Somewhere here lies a metaphor about life itself. For the plant to grow, of course it has to give up some of its dead weight. The underperforming leaves were the by-product of some failure-lack of proper water distribution to their stems, challenges in nutrient distribution, etc., but I took it for what I felt was the lesson stated above-the brown leaves were necessary growing pains in the process of the plant growing bigger and stronger. But what to do about the brown leaves? Should I snip them off? Or let them be?