Day la hinh cua Phao Chuoi, rat tuong tua nhu la phao hoa, nhu la firecracker ruc ro mau sac Tet. This here is what we call a Phao Chuoi which I clumsily translate as Firecracker Banana. I'm not sure what the real name of it is in English, but looking at it growing in my former nanny's garden makes me happy... I think of the beautiful ways in which we name our flowers, and of the beautiful ways we imitate and flatter these gorgeous flora with our human, artificial fire-sounding, fire-crackling devices (almost every Tet I go down to San Jose and see little kids playing with horrid little popping things that they throw on the ground, making little popping noises which always manage to shock me; why do our children like to do such things? did i like to do that when i was a child? would i find such immeasurable joy if i were to buy me a boxful of that stuff and fling each one to the ground? maybe if i were to fling these things like i wanted to sting the earth then i might find more pleasure? maybe if i stopped wondering what would happen to the little carcasses of these poppers then i might possibly have more fun?)... No need to go further than our own gardens to see the astounding Creation of which we are part... Happy Tet!
Two for luck, two for double happiness
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