Poet Li Yuansheng's "Messenger of Spring" presents the 30th anniversary of the founding of Hainan Province

Flying Song at the End of the World

Commemorate the 30th anniversary of The establishment of Hainan as a provincial special economic zone

The Messenger of Spring

Li Yuansheng

There is almost no winter on Hainan Island, and if there is, it is only the winter in the summer. What about its spring? In this place where flowers bloom in all seasons, it seems to be difficult to feel the rhythm of spring. However, I have slowly felt the arrival of spring in many places in Hainan more than once, and every time I can truly feel the depth and magnificence of the rhythm of the four seasons.

I once wrote that winter is a pause in life, and the same is true in the warm southern country—life pauses, and all plants slow down or completely abandon the scramble for the sky and the sun, as if entering some kind of deep sleep.

Such pauses do not change because of being in a warm environment. From the source of life, all species carry and record the natural rhythmic tides. Species that can continue to survive have struggled to adapt themselves to environmental changes. But the old tide is still engraved in the original memory of all life. Or, like growth, pause is a necessity for life, making the next round of growth more intense and life lasting longer... How many ancient Upanishads do our bodies carry?

There are many species that have probed the winter and spring of Hainan earlier than I have, and with the ancient mysteries they carry, they have become the seasonal messengers of this island.

For example, herbaceous plants take root, also known as undead birds, the most common in Hainan is the curly leaf undead birds, from Africa they are very adaptable to the environment here, have fled to the wild, occupying a lot of barren places. Before spring came, they erected flagpost-like flower posts, and then carefully hung out one small lantern after another, tentatively blossoming, one after another, and when they entered the blooming period, a large piece of small lantern in the air swayed in the wind, and spring really came. The flowering of the undead birds with curly leaves records the transition from winter to spring in Hainan, and those beautiful little lanterns are the pioneers of spring.

For example, kapok from India, also known as Panzhihua, blooms in Hainan every February. On the steel-like branches that have fallen out of their leaves, the huge flowers bloom quietly, lonely and warm. The trunk of kapok has been full of thick thorns since childhood, and these untamed teenagers who refuse to be thousands of miles away have now become middle-aged people with flourishing style, and the rough thorns that were once thick thorns have become low-key scars, they no longer need to be vigilant against others, they only care about flowering, and have the aura of a hero.

More than once, I have looked up at the kapok on the side of the road in Baoting, and the flowers are proudly lifted in the air, inaccessible. Littleone in Hainan bothered them, not even picking up their flowers. You know, the flower buds of kapok are very good ingredients, and the soup and stir-fried meat are all delicious. In Panzhihua City, named after flowers, the elderly and children look up at the flowers of kapok and hope that the wind will blow them down, but it is a particularly interesting scene.

Also blooming in the air are plants with red flowers, as well as phoenix wood and flame wood. The phoenix wood is tall and lush, with its feathers fluttering, and its flowers do not bloom until summer. Flame wood has huge flowers that bloom in all seasons, like flames lifted in the air. They have their own beauty, but only Kapok can be called the messenger of Hainan spring.

In fact, many plants also record the rhythm of the seasons, but they are not so conspicuous, and they need to be carefully observed and compared to find. For example, the thick vines all over Sanya and Wanning Beaches have flowers in all seasons, but the flowers have obvious changes, winter is the time when there are the fewest flowers, spring flowers are still few but they begin to grow new branches, from March onwards, the flowers of thick vines gradually increase, and bloom most enthusiastically in summer. Each leaf of the thick vine resembles thick lips, and, if you look closely, they report in some sort of dumb language the news of the arrival of spring. In March, you can find many locusts on the new leaves of thick vines, and they have accurately grasped the news of the various herbs in the spring and started their own life journey. Of course, this feast is not without risks, and the new leaves of the thick vine also have early spring hunters, such as mantis nymphs, bug-hunting nymphs, who also accurately grasp the collective birth news of locusts.

Locusts and predators appear almost simultaneously, and the same story takes place in the grass of mimosa. There are many mimosa grasses on the beaches of Hainan, which have entered the blooming period since February, the leaves are shy, but the flower bulbs are not at all, and they are always held up with joy.

In the winter of Hainan, there are still butterflies flying, so have butterflies gotten rid of the rhythm of the four seasons? On the contrary, in my eyes, butterflies are equally accurate in showing the news of winter to spring.

The butterflies that can be seen in various parts of Hainan in winter are mostly wintering butterflies, mainly spotted butterflies, butterflies and pink butterflies, and they are invariably a raid on old clothes, and some are even scarred and their wings are broken. They persevered with great patience, waiting for spring to come, when they mated, laid their eggs, and entrusted their offspring to the boundless spring light.

More sensitive to the seasons are the butterflies, which are the messengers of spring in the butterfly kingdom and are almost extinct in winter. As soon as March entered, the pupae of various butterflies seemed to be awakened by the same mysterious alarm clock, and each broke free from the shackles of the cocoon and feathered one after another. So from the city to the countryside, you can see them. These alarm clocks, not even much to do with temperature, should be as old as the provenance of life.

Another flying family, dragonflies, also looked beyond the seasons, and all year round, their wings flashed by the pond, giving people a big illusion. In fact, many members of this family are also detecting whether spring is coming with great sensitivity. For example, there are colored crickets that like to flow water.

There is a valley not far from Sanya that I have visited in different seasons. The valley still retains the basic style of the original rainforest, and of course, it is also eroded by the hanging bamboo plums introduced for tourism beautification. One afternoon in mid-February, I walked along the creek in this valley for about two kilometers. That night, he visited again with a flashlight and found that in addition to some wild fish and crabs occupying the stream and on both sides, there were two interesting species: the color-changing tree lizard and the spiny water frog. The former is the closest species to chameleons in China, which can change skin color with the environment; The latter is endemic to Hainan and was found in large numbers that night. From the afternoon to the evening, not a single colored cricket was seen.

After a month, revisiting the old place, the scene has become completely different. This stream has become a blessed place for all kinds of colored cetites, hiking a kilometer, no more than an hour, and observing several legendary color crickets: the three-spotted Yang nose cricket, the broadband brook cricket, the Lisi silkworm, especially the latter two, are extremely precious Hainan endemic species.

And the creek is no longer as dark as it was a month ago, and all kinds of wildflowers are competing to bloom. The long-stemmed three-treasure wood has bloomed a lot of delicate yellow flowers. Heterophyllary three treasure wood, feeling more dull, several trees, only to find a flower, but this is not an ordinary flower, it has a very rare black flower. I also found a purple jade plate, the huge flowers were full and round, but they all hung their heads very low.

These rare mountain flowers are all native to the island, and none of them have yet been artificially introduced. Hidden in the mountains, they are accompanied by mountain fog and water all day long, and they know the progress of spring very well. They sink in winter and begin to bloom in March and April, obeying the hands of the four seasons and being faithful messengers of spring.

(Li Yuansheng, poet and ecological photographer, has won the Lu Xun Literature Award, the People's Literature Award, and the October Literature Award.) )

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