(Continued from Part 1 : A quest for fall foliage )
I have once or twice read and imagined how this “hoa” rẻ quạt might look like, whether it would be that poetic in real world… I was curious, yet I never thought that one day, in my first fall in California, this interesting tree would unexpectedly walk out from the old comic books and come to me that beautiful...
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It was one autumn day when I was looking around for some fall colors, I luckily caught sight of some striking trees yellowing up a corner of the street…These were among just a few trees that heartily put on fall colors in this area. I did not know they were ginkgoes until one day, while waiting for my husband at the dentist’s, I walked closer to the trees nearby to pick some leaves for fall decoration...
Holding one of the little yellow leaves with my fingertips, some thoughts kept lingering in my mind… I could not say I had seen this kind of trees before, but the fan-shaped leaf was distinct and unmistakable. Though this is California, not Japan, I still naturally held a growing belief that it was the “lá rẻ quạt” from the old Japanese comic books that I read long ago... "It must be...!”, I told myself.
When I came home, I googled and was filled with pure joy to know that I was right, that was ginkgo – cây rẻ quạt.
From then on, these yellow trees have become even more beautiful …
Holding one of the little yellow leaves with my fingertips, some thoughts kept lingering in my mind… I could not say I had seen this kind of trees before, but the fan-shaped leaf was distinct and unmistakable. Though this is California, not Japan, I still naturally held a growing belief that it was the “lá rẻ quạt” from the old Japanese comic books that I read long ago... "It must be...!”, I told myself.
When I came home, I googled and was filled with pure joy to know that I was right, that was ginkgo – cây rẻ quạt.
From then on, these yellow trees have become even more beautiful …
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| This is one of my favorite shots |
Though “ginkgo” is a cute catchy name, I still prefer to call it cây rẻ quạt - open autumn fan, for this Vietnamese name accurately portrays how a ginkgo leaf looks. Not only does a ginkgo leaf have the shape of a fan, it also has many fine veins running together to the stalk, looking like the frame of an Asian fan…
But this is nature's fan ^_^
Isn’t it lovely to see myriads of nature’s little fans hanging from the tree, fanning and swaying in the crisp autumn wind?
When I called it "hoa rẻ quạt", my husband reminded me it was a leaf, not a flower. Yes, I knew. But many people (including me :D) call ginkgo “hoa” rẻ quạt for a reason. Standing alone, a ginkgo leaf may resemble more a delicate petal than a so-called flower. But when thousands of these “petals” come together as a grove, it is definitely a yellow blossom, a blossom that is dazzlingly beautiful, but not blindingly dazzling … (as how I mean it in Vietnamese, “đẹp rạng ngời mà không chói lóa” :D)
And whenever a breeze comes caressing the branches, flurries of yellow "petals" softly drift down, painting such a romantic sight...
It is lovely that ginkgo leaves do not fall alone one by one, they usually silently wait, and then suddenly, fall all at once…That is why ginkgo is well-known for its beautiful golden rain... I have not had the privilege to behold such a shower of these autumn's golden fans, but it is already romantic enough when I sat under a ginkgo tree, sometimes had to look up to take in a drizzle of these mellow yellow leaves…
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It is not easy to catch the floating ginkgo leaves, and it is even harder to capture beautiful drizzles of yellow into some small photo frames... |
Do you know that gorgeous ginkgo trees planted in residential areas are mostly male trees? I have learned from some newspaper that female ginkgoes bear fruits that exude slippery and foul-smelling liquid. That is why people prefer to plant male trees :)
There are also many interesting facts and stories about ginkgoes...
As for now, to end this entry, let me quote this famous saying once again - if “Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.”, then our glorious ginkgo "flowers" have brought such an exquisite color to the "second spring" of the year.
Although my husband is not a professional photographer (In fact, he never touched a camera before I came here :D), I am happy to know that he loves me enough to go around with me and take these lovely photos…
"Yesterday - Today - Tomorrow
Each day is as special as you want it to be."
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