Amazing Chinese Characters (382) Vegetable - 菜

 The bronze script of character Vegetable is

The top left is a hand, the top right are two leaves of a plant, the bottom is character Wood (tree), here is the plant which may be a tree or small plant. The hand is picking the leaves as vegetable. 

The big seal script of the character is

Similar to bronze script but the positions are different: the top are the leaves, the middle is the hand, and the bottom is the plant. 

The small seal script of the character is

Similar to big seal script except most strokes change from curves to straight lines.

The song typeface of the character is

菜 

Same as clerical script.

Its Pinyin is Cai4.

菜  means not only vegetables but any real food for meals including meat, eggs,  and cooked dishes, but not the snacks, cakes, cookies, etc. Originally, the food you can buy in farmer's market.