It is hard to imagine summer without flowers. But with the inescapable reality that is climate change, heaven forbid the possibility. 😦 With nary a raindrop in April this year and mercury determinedly rising, what’s to stop someone from fearing that plants would shrink away and refuse to bloom. Nature may be without reason these days, but it always delivers. Despite the fierce environ, the merry month of May is not to be deprived of its summer beauties.
I don’t have a garden, but that’s no excuse to miss out on the showy display of bougainvilleas or the fragrance of the sampaguita. A short walk around my neighborhood allows me such pleasures, free and without much effort. Colors explode from roadsides. They peek from hidden crannies. They line fences or branch out to form canopies. Sometimes I know them by name, at times I wish someone was there to make an introduction.
These ones will have to be without labels for now (until someone tells me what they are called):
I also saw a fire tree and an ylang ylang tree profuse with blooms. Sadly they were too tall for me. My point-and-shoot just couldn’t cope.
Flowers prove that there is justice in this world. The plain-looking and the less colorful ones usually smell sweeter. Take for instance, dama de noche, a scented flower that blooms at night; and sampaguita, the national flower of the Philippines.
Today, I dare to versify. Before such gifts of nature, it would be unfair to not even try.
sun sets darkness grows
your fragrant secret unfolds
maiden of the night
a queen robed in snow
before burning rays fearless
courage becomes her
For someone so prosaic, that wasn’t very easy. Perhaps I should stick to taking more discovery walks. And trying a different path each time.
Salt & Pepper 