Terminalia catappa L.

During the lockdown, I remember seeing the fallen leaves of a ketapang tree in my neighbourhood. Its red struck a profound yearning for the autumns in London where I lived in. They say that autumn is a season where all the leaves become flowers, which I’m sure everyone who has experienced the changing colours of the leaves and heard the rustle of dry leaves on the asphalt would attest to.

This piece is a reminder of the magnitude of emotions a single leaf can bring to our human hearts.

It is an invitation to dream about our memories of the plants that touched us, making us treasure the processes in our lives that brought us to the person we are today.

It is a call to action to really see and notice the lives around us, because when you begin to see, the world is a less lonely place.