The hebrew words for "poplar, alomond, and plane" are puns on the name "Laban" - the owner of the flocks he was tending. Jacob, whose name means "he who grasps the heel" or literally, "the deceiver," had tricked his brother Esau (whose name means "red") out of his inheritance using a red stew (Gen 25:30). Similarly, Laban's name means "white." Jacob deceives him using the white branches.
Whether or not Jacob thinks that the branches are causing the stripes is not relevant to the true causation, which is God.
Genesis 31:6
You know that I've worked for your father with all my strength, yet your father has cheated me by changing my wages ten times. However, God has not allowed him to harm me. If he said, 'The speckled ones will be your wages,' then all the flocks gave birth to speckled young; and if he said, 'The streaked ones will be your wages,' then all the flocks bore streaked young. So God has taken away your father's livestock and has given them to me. |
