Blue
The thorns on the plant are strange, such as the thorns of the rafters, there are also slender burrs like velvets; there are thorns on the stems of plants, there are also thorns on the leaves, on the flower support, on the fruit; there are straight thorns, there are also curved spines with hooks; there are thorns that are degenerated from leaves, thorns that evolve from stems, and there are thorns formed by the epidermis of plants... Most of these thorns are self-protective, and some are meant to spread seeds far away.
When I go to the field to investigate plants, it is common to have a few scratches on the body, and often inadvertently bring home the thorns of the plant, which I jokingly call "medals". On that day, he returned from his hometown in Pingtan with several "medals" on his body- his clothes were stained with the "needles" of white flower ghost needle grass, a 3-centimeter-long garnet thorn crossed the heel of the shoe on the sole of his foot, almost a few millimeters to the flesh; the palm of his hand was pierced with several fine, almost invisible cactus thorns.
As a child, the neighbor's family planted several rows of figs. Although we also grow figs in our house, they are often plucked by us before they are ripe. But the neighbors were different, and they had a cactus fence in their field, so that we couldn't get over it, and we could only watch the fruits grow and ripe, but they couldn't touch them. Occasionally, one or two branches protruded from the fence, and we couldn't help but use various tools to steal them, and chairs and flat shoulders came together. The figs were picked, but they were also stabbed by its "guardian" cactus.
But more often than not, we get pricked when we go to pick the flowers of the cactus. The flowers of the cactus are so beautiful that they have to be picked at the risk of being stabbed. There are two kinds of cactus spines, one is long, as long as a fishbone, yellow, 1 to 2 cm long, and one is a fine thorn, brownish red, fluffy, and not easy to see with the naked eye. Long thorns can generally be avoided, but the fine thorns are like the "Jinyi Guard" hiding in the shadows, very sinister, always taking advantage of your lack of attention to wipe you, and when you come back to God, you have already taken its path, how to pull it out can not be pulled, can not see and touch, but the thorn is pierced.
The long thorns are in the light, the fine thorns are in the dark, and the two together guard the cactus flowers. I often think that's why the cactus flowers are so delicate. Its yellow petals are silky smooth, sometimes touching it, and have a waxy texture like blue and white porcelain. More often, I see it as a large wax plum, like the sunshine woven on my chest in winter, and when I look at it, an indescribable tenderness and warmth will rise in my heart. Amazingly, the flowers of the cactus are not only favored by bees, but also the favorite objects of wasps, and bumblebees are often seen flying around the cactus flowers. Is there any strange mystery here?
As a child, I was willing to risk being stung by wasps and stabbed by cacti, and I also had to pick a flower to go home, just to see what was inside such a beautiful flower. Dissecting cactus flowers is a technical activity. There are many fine thorns on the flower tray, and the hand cannot grasp the flower holder, but it is reluctant to pinch the hand on the petal - the petal is too delicate, afraid of accidentally hurting it and affecting its beauty. The experience accumulated at a time was accumulated, and it was finally concluded that placing the finger on the outer skin of the small hole would reduce the sting. Rao is so, or often stabbed.
Time passes like a white colt, and childhood memories gradually blur. Until one day, I heard a few flower friends say that in Southeast Asia, there are often cactus fruits sold in the street market and can be eaten. I was surprised that the "little friend" who accompanied me from childhood to adulthood could actually achieve results, but I didn't know it. After that, I heard that there were many cacti fruits growing on a certain hill in Pingtan, so I drove back. Sure enough, the leafy fleshy stems of cacti that are more than one person tall are covered with dense "cactus fruits".
When the cactus fruit ripens, the outer skin is purple-red and looks a lot like dragon fruit, which is mouth-watering. In fact, its fruit is less than one-third of that of ordinary dragon fruit, but the seed volume is several times that of dragon fruit, it tastes sour and sweet, there is not much flesh, and the skin has thorns, no wonder none of us want to eat it. On that day, I brought back two or three pounds of fairy fruits from my hometown and sent them to several distant flower friends, which was quite the joy of giving roses and leaving a lingering fragrance. It was also the day when, thirty years after leaving home, he was stabbed by a cactus again and recalled the memories of being stabbed in his childhood.
I think that the yellow flower of the cactus and its thorns are like the "chrysanthemum and knife" written by the famous American anthropologist Ruth Benedict: one is tender and delicate, the other is aggressive; one is gentle and weak, and the other is stoic. Soft enough to make people feel compassion, tough enough to be invincible, unifying the two and exerting them to the extreme is the lesson to be cultivated all your life.
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Source: Fujian Daily