“Ve ngang mot mua hoa gao/Thang Ba e ap ma hong/Bang hoang tieng keu chim sao/Mot troi hoa do menh mong…”(“Passing by a season of silk-cotton flowers / March shyly blushing pink / Startled by the call of a starling / A vast sky with red blossoms…” (from Ve ngang mua hoa gao by Thien An).
I have always loved the sturdy petals and the intoxicating red of the silk-cotton flower. In my memories, I often associate these blossoms with distant fields or with the deep corner of my grandmother’s garden back in my hometown. Yet now, much closer, the clear blue sky of Hue is also tinged with the red of silk-cotton flowers whenever March arrives.
People say that March is the month of the silk-cotton flower, the time when late spring slowly fades. As the blossoms begin to thin out, the sound of cicadas fills streets and village lanes, signaling the approach of the blazing summer days. During the weeks when the silk-cotton flowers burst into full bloom, they are at their most beautiful on days when the sky is clear, the wind is gentle, and the days are calm and unhurried.
Welcoming the silk-cotton blossom season on the streets of Hue, Hue Today Weekly would like to introduce a collection of images capturing the beauty of the silk-cotton flower - one of the many beautiful blossoms of Hue that bloom in mid-March - the month when the city celebrates its liberation with “sunlight rising to redden the sky.”
Photo collection done by Phan Trung.
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| Silk-cotton flowers in bloom along both banks of the Huong River |
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| Preserving beautiful moments with silk-cotton blossoms |
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| Silk-cotton flowers at An Dinh Palace |
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| A silk-cotton tree on Le Duan Street |
By HUE TODAY WEEKLY
