Don't always go through with the locust flower (prose)
Written by Cui Hongguo
"When the cicada makes a sound, the locust flower brings two branches." That night I sent a message in the circle of friends, "Those who use a sickle to cut locust trees to pick locust flowers, don't cut them again." Locust tree innocent, locust flower lovely, locust flower and locust tree is our white angel and sweet messenger to help the homeland, don't always go through with the locust flower. ”
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It's May again, and it's the season of acacia flowers. At this time of year, from the countryside to the city's lakeside, hillsides, everywhere blooms as white as snow locust flowers, wherever you go, the rich fragrance from the big and the old is coming, you have passed, still chasing your footsteps, noisy around you, in the occasional passing wind, naughty and cute swaying, shaking, you want to hide and can not hide, in addition to leaving their beauty in the mobile phone, leaving their fragrance in the poetry books, what else can you do with those acacia flowers that are beautiful and delicious?
Hometown partners and surrounding relatives and friends in Qilu Yidian and their own circle of friends basking in the puzzle of those locust flowers, sharing the May locust flowers to bring people simple white and plain and elegant mellow fragrance, in countless messages almost all praised this spring and summer, in the Season of May, nature sent angels. The fragrance of locust flowers in May is a topic that everyone is happy to talk about, and I have also written an essay about the locust flowers in my hometown with the same title, which aroused everyone's infinite thoughts and yearning for locust flowers after the push of Qilu one point. From childhood to adulthood, who has not had those days with locust flowers in their lives, who has not had a beautiful May in their lives, since there is, the richness and fragrance of this locust flower will naturally not be broken.
People may ask, "You are not right, since you love the whiteness and fragrance of the locust flower so much, why do you say that you don't always have to live with the locust flower?" "Yes, the locust flower is a beautiful angel given to us by nature, a beautiful embellishment of our May life, and we can't always live with the locust flower." Around us, there are many people who always can't get along with the locust flower. Jun, in the major network media clients often see such news, said that there is such a group of like to eat locust flowers of the uncle aunt, before waiting for the locust flowers to fully bloom, they can't wait to bring the sickle, the basket, three groups, five a group flocked to the river, ditch, hillside, next to no one with a sharp sickle hook, cut, stunned is to cut down the locust branch at the end of the good end, a moment of kung fu on a branch on the locust flower clean, without regard to the feelings of the locust flower and passers-by. There is such a person in the community where I live, rolling his eyes at the kind and kind persuasion of others to continue to continue to reason with me, which means as if to say, "It's not your family, you can manage it!" "It's really laughable. How many locust trees have no skin, how many people eat locust flowers is the same as eating a delicious meal, which is really a very annoying thing in the season of locust flowers in May. It is no wonder that there are many opinions on various platforms and groups.
Compared with other trees and flowers, locust flowers can evoke people's homesickness and nostalgia, and are a white and flawless ribbon that people connect with their childhood, which is very emotional in people's memory and life. I often miss the days when I was very young and accompanied by locust flowers every year. At that time, the locust tree in our village was in a forest behind our house, and it was a garden of locust trees, poplar trees, and elm trees. Next to the garden is the inlet that I often talk about in my essays on my hometown, and to the west of the inlet is the vegetable field of our team of Cui people's families, the West Cliff. Many locust trees grow in a row on the shore of the bay, spring comes, the wind rises, the water ripples, and the row of locust trees grows luxuriantly in the spring water of a bay. Before long, on the edge of the inlet, the tree garden bloomed with locust flowers one tree after another, and the whole village was perfumed.
"The acacia flowers are pale yellow and milky white, and can be cooked and eaten, and can also be used as important dyes. The unopened locust flower, commonly known as "locust rice", is a kind of Traditional Chinese medicine. It flowers in late summer and is an important source of nectar. "The sweetness of the locust flower is different from others, the taste is very light, the freshly opened locust flower eats the sweet silk in the mouth, refreshing, fragrant like mint, can quench thirst and refresh, that sweet taste can stay in the mouth for a long time." When I was young, my life was not very good, the family was large, and the elderly often worried about the next meal. On the days when the locust flowers are fragrant in May, those fragrant and sweet locust flowers suddenly solve many problems for adults. The inlet and the tree garden have become our happy paradise, we like to be with the bay water, like to be with the woods, like to be with the west cliff, and we like to be with the locust flowers.
The locust flowers on the edge of the bay bloom very vigorously, hanging very low, the water's edge of the bay, reaching out can reach, we will choose a position on the bay shore, stick to those locust trees, pick the white and tender locust flowers with our hands, and stuff them into the mouth while picking, and do not forget to share the taste of locust flowers with each other. A person can't eat much, mainly to have fun, it doesn't take long to eat enough, and the locust flowers of that tree are not uncommon. Now that I think about it, it's more of a kind of being intimately close to nature, with a tree. Picking locust flowers and eating locust flowers like that, locust trees can't hurt their muscles and bones, so during the days when locust flowers are in full bloom, more locust flowers are hung all over the branches every day. Every day we go there to pick locust flowers and eat locust flowers. Sometimes we also run to the tree garden, climb to an old tree, hidden in the sea of trees and flowers, while picking locust flowers, while watching the white clouds slowly drifting from the garden and the village from the bushes of locust trees, close together, you really can't tell which is the locust flower and which is the white cloud.
Sometimes, the adults also carry a basket to the inlet to pick some locust flowers, which is the time when the locust flowers are in full bloom. Sisters, sisters-in-law, and aunts have all picked locust flowers by the water inlet, and they are picking locust flowers while talking about the parents in the village and at home. "The flowers and leaves are urging each other for a long time, and the dust is constantly idle", picking locust flowers is quite a matter of human fireworks. My sister and sister-in-law sometimes wore red scarves, and in that blooming white, there were a few bunches of red on their heads at the edge of the inlet, among a row of locust trees, constantly changing and moving in the tree garden, and the sweet smile and the exchange of words passed between the locust tree and the locust flower, which was really a beautiful rural beauty and picture. Their picking of locust flowers is also a kind of friendly dialogue with the locust flowers, and I have never seen anyone climb a good locust tree into a mess, everyone thinks that it is a very selfish, unrighteous act, so no one does it. My sister and sister-in-law also ate while picking, and when the basket was full, they said they went home laughing.
Some of the ways to eat locust flowers are very exquisite. Usually, we eat enough of the locust lace that we picked first. Then it was washed with water, and one way to eat it was to make noodles, make a dish ball, put it on two layers of grates and steam, then it was all with a wood-burning stove, and soon a pot of locust flowers and barra seeds was steamed, and when the pot was opened, the courtyard was fragrant. There is also a kind of eating is also a kind of noodles, heated flat bottom pancake tweezers, brushed with a layer of burnt yellow oil, acacia flower cake, tweezers can put three or four at a time, a will hear a snorting sound, with a wooden shovel to turn one by one, locust flower cake is cooked, eat fragrant and crispy, I can eat several at a time.
"The moon enters the palace and the locust is faint, and it turns into countless locust flowers." At night, after eating locust flowers and locust flower cakes, a full moon shines on the quiet village, the moon hangs in the tree garden and the treetops of the locust tree, the moonlight sprinkles in the waves of the inlet, the locust flowers make a cheerful sound in the spring and summer wind, and the sweet fragrance of the locust flowers flutters around the village and the village. At that time, the weather was getting hotter, and there were grandfathers, grandmothers, aunts and mothers at the head of the village who took cool mats and pu fans on the night of the bright moon, sat down on the high slope at the west end of the village, talked about locust flowers, smelled flowers, talked about homely life, and spent ordinary days.
More than forty years have passed since that said. Now it's the season of acacia flowers. Acacia flowers are not only for me, but also for many people, they are a kind of unbreakable complex in their hearts, including those uncles and aunts who took a sickle to cut branches and pick up locust flowers, and they will also think of the days when they were very young. If it is a landscape, people picking locust flowers is more of an interaction with the white and fragrant tree in that season and a release of the self-heart. Today, locust trees and locust flowers are part of the beautiful ecology of our beautiful home. Nowadays, the days are better, there are more things to eat and eat, the locust flowers can occasionally pick a little to taste the fresh, in the corners of the countryside and the city, looking at the white of the face, as white as a cloud, is not a very pleasing thing! Looking at the dappled scars of the locust trees, watching the branches of the locust trees being cut to tears, watching you pick the lakeside of the locust flowers, the hillside is in a mess, I think you will not be calm in your heart, and it will not be good to think about it, and it will not be so delicious to eat.
"When the cicada makes a sound, the locust flower brings two branches." That night I sent a message in the circle of friends, "Those who use a sickle to cut locust trees to pick locust flowers, don't cut them again." Locust tree innocent, locust flower lovely, locust flower and locust tree is our white angel and sweet messenger to help the homeland, don't always go through with the locust flower. "We are passers-by, they are not, when our lives are withering, maybe they are shining in the summer sun, decorating this world of birds and flowers, right, don't always live with those white locust flowers." 」
Cui Hongguo is a member of the Chinese Prose Literature Association, a member of the Shandong Writers Association, a member of the Shandong Provincial Prose Literature Association, and a member of the Jinan and Yantai Writers Association. He has published a collection of essays, "The Ranch for Finding the Soul", and "The Most Beautiful Encounter with Haiyang - Cui Hongguo's Prose Collection". He has published more than 200 essays and book reviews in newspapers, media and platforms, and his works have won awards in provincial and municipal essay competitions for many times. "The Bridge of Jinan" was selected as an excellent essay recommendation for Qilu Evening News", "Four Brothers Gone" was reviewed by Qilu One as a monthly "explosive article", and "Eating a Big Table in the Countryside" was included in the March electronic monthly magazine "Qingquan Record" and "2022 Qingquan Project Award-Winning Long Article" in the March electronic monthly magazine "Qingquan Record" and was rated as excellent prose.
One point wind through the forest