Nature or Nurture

Driftwood is an unnatural form of 'wood' and an irregular presence to call 'timber'. Infested by insects, eroded by waves, and bleached white, its appearance is somewhat like a corpse, and we do not care about what kind of wood it was originally. It feels as though it drifts between our awareness as an object stripped of its original attributes, existing outside the conventional notion of 'material'.

However, if we observe driftwood as a material, we might notice the strangeness of a tree that should have grown in the mountains being collected from the sea. In other words, it is like undergoing a second phase of growth in a different ecosystem. After marking its time in the forest as wood grain, it seems to inscribe its time at sea with a new texture.

Does the definition of 'material' depend on its original nature, or is it determined by the environment in which it grows?