DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

• Diagnosis of one of the following as defined by the WHO classification:

  • Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) (stratum I) meeting one of the following criteria:

    • Primary refractory or relapsed (in 1 year or less) disease and not a candidate for potentially curative therapy

    • Untreated (or previously treated but fulfilling criteria for poor prognosis) with poor-risk leukemia, defined by any of the following criteria:

      • More than 65 years old
      • Poor-risk cytogenetics, defined as patients with karyotype abnormalities other than t(8;21), inv(16), t(15;17)
      • Poor candidate for aggressive chemotherapy

  • Chronic lymphocytic leukemia or small lymphocytic lymphoma (stratum II) meeting the following criteria:

    • Received at least one prior therapy that included a purine analog* NOTE: *Patients with a history of severe autoimmune disease or requiring therapy with chronic corticosteroids or who have any other specific relative contraindication to receive a purine analog may have received another form of therapy that included alkylating agents
• No granulocytic sarcoma

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

Age

• 18 and over

Performance status

• ECOG 0-2

Life expectancy

• At least 12 weeks

Hematopoietic

• Stratum I:

  • WBC ≤ 10,000/mm^3 (40,000/mm^3 if stable for the past week)*

• Stratum II:

  • No uncontrolled autoimmune hemolytic anemia
  • No idiopathic thrombocytopenia purpura NOTE: *May be sustained with hydroxyurea before starting therapy and during the first 4 days of therapy

Hepatic

• Bilirubin ≤ 1.5 mg/dL
• ALT and AST ≤ 2 times upper limit of normal

Renal

• Creatinine ≤ 2.0 mg/dL

Other

• No active infection requiring IV antibiotics
• HIV negative
• No other severe medical condition that would preclude study participation
• No psychiatric condition that would preclude study compliance
• No history of seizures
• Not pregnant or nursing
• Negative pregnancy test
• Fertile patients must use effective contraception

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

Biologic therapy

• Not specified

Chemotherapy

• See Disease Characteristics
• More than 14 days since prior chemotherapy (except hydroxyurea)
• No prior FR901228 (depsipeptide) for step 2 of this study
• No other concurrent chemotherapy

Endocrine therapy

• See Disease Characteristics
• No concurrent corticosteroids for antiemetic therapy

• No concurrent hormonal therapy except for the following:

  • Steroids for treatment of adrenal failure or septic shock
  • Insulin for diabetes
  • Tamoxifen or equivalent for breast cancer prevention or adjuvant therapy
  • Estrogens or progestins for gynecologic indications

Radiotherapy

• More than 14 days since prior radiotherapy
• No concurrent palliative radiotherapy

Surgery

• Not specified

Other

• No concurrent anticonvulsant medication, including valproic acid