Cacti in a Glasshouse
The enclosed warm tropical garden beckoned me and I ventured into that Victorian globular greenhouse.
What an amazing contrast of foliage in there to the ones outside. I’d entered into a tropical paradise just by virtue of choosing to pass through the door. A tall banana tree stood towering over me at the entrance. Actually there were quite a few tall banana trees all originating from the same spot, as baby trees sporuted from the base of the mother tree’s trunk. The leaves sheathed over each other through the trunk, just like a giant leek. I was eager to spot a banana fruit or even a banana flower. Mouth watering I remembered the savouries my mom used to make with banana flowers. I couldn’t spot any this time; perhaps it was the wrong time of the year. Its amazing that almost every bit of a banana tree serves to provide food, including the leaves which serve as plates.
As I venutred further I was intrigued by the exquisite patterns on the leaves, and the aestivation of the leaves. I brought out my adorable 5MP phone and started shooting pictures. I must mention that my 5MP was a mega leap from the 1.2MP camera I’d always owned. I love the vividness and intensity of colours it renders. I often think it gives better quality images than my own eyes. There I was zooming on to the patterns and shooting pictures of the nature unravelling in front of me. I was also intrigued by the trunks of some of those tropical trees, which has lovely overlapping layers and rich shades in the upper part of the trunk culminating inot large sheath of leaves. As I was zooming and clicking, I paused hearing another click in the background. There was a fellow enthusiast clicking away the foliage in her rather imposing SLR. Instantly, I touched my 5MP camera for reassurance, fending the urge to buy myself an SLR when viable. As I resumed clicking, I stopped and nearly squealed in delight at the exquisite variety of cactuses. Now, cactuses have evoked contradictory emotions in me from my childhood. As a child I had disliked them, for they seem to lack warmth and love. They were thorny ugly heartless things, unlike my jasmine bush or hisbiscus shrub. As I grew older, I began appreciating the alternative existence envisaged in a cactus, the survival mode it had adapted to deliver that menancing physical appearance. Today, I was awestruck by something more immediate and aesthetic. it just stood out; armed with my zoom lens I just couldn’t escape it. The sheer brilliance of the structure, the intricate arrangement with variations in each different cacti. I was struck by the space conservation and biometrics.
Thousands of thorns were arranged with awesome regularity on a small cactus head, offering such beautiful uniformity of patterns. Where did nature ever learn art and pattern rendering from? How come it is so bloody brilliant at everything? Each cacti offereed a different take on arrangement and pattern, and each angle I zoomed into revealed further layers of richness. My camera was in for a treat. Myself and the SLR lady silently shared the cacti between us and peered into its structures through our lenses. The cacti revealed itself to us in all its mysterious glory. Dodging across other connoisures and buggies, I was gradually falling in love with the cacti. Boy! I noted that I have indeed come a long way from the little girl who had thought they were cold thorny heartless plants, to this woman who feels infinitely small at the exquisite brilliance of the patterns manifested by nature and the mathematical biometrics involved.
