Lavender dreams

Spring arrives with a bag of hues,

Sprayed like confetti,

As if winter’s end awoke Him well,

The Artist now set free

 

But of all the colours that I see

From the vantage of my room,

Is a shade of purple, lilac soft

Fused with a tinge of gloom

 

For the jacarandas have blossomed all

They have begun to sing

Can you hear the lavender-filled notes,

The symphony of Spring?

 

This city has a long-lost tryst

A romance of yesteryear,

With a tree that came from faraway

Each equinox to cheer

 

Come October then, avenues

Those boulevards of old

Turn bright and youthful one more time,

When jacarandas they behold

 

And winter’s empty streets of cold

Turn amethyst in peace

Archways shade the city’s lanes,

With wonders that don’t cease

 

For once, the forests flanking us

Give us a lonely smile,

Something done right, as jacarandas

Erupt mile after mile

 

(I ponder sadly when I think

I have seen these seas in past,

Yellow Gulmohur, Palash red,

But those palettes did not last)

 

One more wave, now lavender,

One more spring it goes,

This city of grey, I’ll take what comes

Every colour that flows

 

From sakura’s pink to this purple burst

In this canvas world of mine,

A single drop of colour

And our drab world turns divine!

 

25^th October’ 2024

 

October is jacaranda time for Sydney – no other flower perhaps steals the citizens’ hearts as this pale violet flower that can be seen in most suburbs, leafless, awakening from winter’s slumber, yet providing a profusion of flowers that almost looks lifted from a fairytale. Imagine then, the romanticism that an entire boulevard lined with jacarandas can unleash! They are a sight to behold, the tubular flowers sturdy enough to last a few weeks unlike its predecessor, the cherry blossoms that so precariously reflect the fragility of life.

The trees are so common and popular that many Sydney siders believe that this is a native tree. But like the rest of the city, it too is a migrant from South America, and hence never seen in the native national parks around the city. Brought from America for its brilliant flowers, the plant failed to thrive at the cold, damp climes of Kew’s Botanical gardens in London, when it was shipped to the new colony. As if allies of the southern hemisphere, the rare plant, so hard to propagate not only survived, and akin to Sydney’s spirits, thrived – the weather suited the jacaranda and civic authorities quickly adopted the sapling to add that special colour of aristocracy in their suburbs. The rest, is purplish history - you may call it a migrant, a refugee, or an upstart, but the jacaranda has been lovingly integrated in the cityscapes so much that Spring is incomplete without the flowers painting lavender dreams in every Sydneysider’s hearts.