Season of flowers

While the morning mist still lingers over the streets, Hue’s flower market is already awake before dawn. At the market along Ngo Kha Street in Phu Xuan Ward, near the wholesale market, warm yellow lights spill over bundles of flowers still in bud. The sharp revving of motorbikes, vendors calling out to one another, and brisk bargaining create a unique rhythm of the final days of the lunar year.

As Lunar New Year is coming to town, public spaces throughout the heart of Hue City are slowly turning into spring destinations for both residents and visitors. These days, Hue Green Parks Center is putting the finishing touches on its preparations, bringing fresh and vibrant spring colors to the city’s public spaces.

I did not grow up in a family devoted solely to farming, yet my childhood held a clear and gentle chapter shaped by the cycles of rain and sun in my grandparents’ fields. Those years, and the memories they carry, have left a lasting mark, so that even now, I am stirred by an inexpressible emotion whenever I see farmers busily preparing for a new sowing season.

People say that after days submerged in floodwater, when the water recedes, the ground is left with a dull, gloomy gray. Yet it is within that muted palette that the resilient life force of nature begins to sprout - taking root, greening again, and stirring with new vitality through the caring hands of the city’s green-park workers.

The chrysanthemum fields grown for the upcoming Lunar New Year of the Horse in Thanh Thuy Ward have been devastated, leaving flower growers with heavy hearts. Everything they have cultivated over the past three months has been swept away by floodwaters.