Handbook for explorers 12

You'll wonder, in time, if it's been worthwhile:
The search for gentians in rocky crevices
Or epiphytic orchids beneath high jungle
Canopies, where jaguars hunt; species
After species, that have to be defined,
Under a microscope or in a tube,
Listed in tables, signed and countersigned,
Reduced to figures you must square or cube
To reach conclusions, which seem to make sense.
But amid the reckoning and statistics
(Shadows on surfaces where nothing sticks),
You'll want to turn back to the present tense,
To find new co-ordinates and refrain
From doing what you did before, again.