The End of Spring

Spring has always had a very special place in my memory when I think back on my first days in Korea. I arrived at the end of winter about 12 years ago. Although this wasn’t my first time in Korea, my only experience of the country’s four seasons was the summer of 2002, during the Soccer World Cup. However, since I grew up in a very tropical climate and had spent most of my life living near the ocean in hot weather, summer here was nothing new for me. Hot and humid: just like home.

When I arrived, the weather was cold and the worst had already passed, it was only chilly and dry. I had also lived in Texas before for about four years and so these conditions felt very similar to the southern winters of the US.

But one day magic happened. I walked out of my place, the middle of March if I remember correctly, and I was so impressed to see flowers of every color and pure beauty popping up out of nowhere. It seemed like everything just happened overnight. The colors were trying to escape from their concrete prisons to put on a chromatic show of beauty. The more I walked, the more I saw. I saw flowers that I had never seen before that were just coming out of everywhere.

I decided to write a letter to my grandma, telling her how beautiful Korea was, and how I was amazed with all the flowers blooming everywhere. My grandma had a special relationship with flowers. She had the most amazing rose garden in the backyard, and was always very proud of it. She used to teach me how to trim the roses during certain phases of the moon as well as how to make them stand up beautifully tall forever. The letter was handwritten, something that is rare in these modern times of email and texting. She always told me how she thought about that letter all the time and how much it meant to her.

It is almost the end of spring now and although my grandma has been gone for many years, the emotions that this season brings to me are not. They return every year. Every spring, I get excited about the blooming that is about to start. I try to take different photos, from different angles and use different techniques to make every year a unique, memorable photographic experience. Especially the cherry blossoms, something I have never experienced before, make me look forward to a new photo experience.

I sometimes wish my grandma could see the photos, or perhaps she has, as I believe that she has become a part of everything that is beautiful. And her garden of roses is now a permanent place in my heart.