NUIT BLANCHE /
re-membering
chrysanthemum
STOLEN BLOOM / chrysanthemum
Autumn wind blast the grounds,
cool, cold, yet refreshing.
Mourning arises. It’s time.
Sweet, delicate, and floral juxtaposed against the dead sea.
Ancestral flower of mourning and longevity.
She wore the scent of poets,
bloomed in the verses of exiled scholars.
Now she rests, clipped,
in British urns, labelled as ‘exotic beauty’.
She remembers the hands that clipped her.
秋風掃落大地，
涼，寒，卻清新。
哀悼升起。時刻到了。
甜美、纖細、花香，
映襯在死海之上。
祖先的哀悼與長壽之花。
她披著詩人的氣息，
在流亡學者的詩句中綻放。
如今她安息，被剪下，
置於英國的瓮中，
標註為「異國之美」。
她記得那些剪她的手。
Chrysanthemum indicum
Wild Chrysanthemum / Medicinal Chrysanthemum (菊花 Autumn Flower)
Native to: China (cultivated since 15th century BCE)
Taken by: Jesuit botanists, 17th century, 18th and 19th Century British Botanists
Dispersed to: France, UK, global ornamental gardens
Herbal Taste: Flora, earthy, delicate, slightly sweet, camphor or grassy note
Herbal Use: Cooling, Clears Heat and Wind, Calms Liver Yang