The Flame of the Forest

There was a day in February, I wandered in the campus feeling despair. There was a tree blooming orange red flowers near the red temple I like. It is the flame of the forest, the symbol of our university. I remember the time I climbed the tree near a little stream to pluck the flame of the forest. At that time I was nine. I felt for love. I missed my grandma. It is a very significant flower in my grandma's life.

She was sixteen and my grandpa was fifty-four, she fell in love with my grandpa taking outdoor pictures in the forest in front of grandpa's bungalow. It was a time when there were flame of the forest blooming brightly. She got married with him no matter whatever people around her refused. She had a blind love rejecting all her opportunity and a student life as a medical student. She finally divorced with my grandpa after fourteen years hearing he said to her that the monkey he brought up is scaring him then. She managed herself to get three degrees, two diplomas and a master and proved her ability to her ex-husband and in-laws. How did she manage her emotion, feelings and love? I think, the flame of the forest would have burned her heart and life. How did she face life with the little children and as a divorced wife? Her decisions and the way she lived was too bold to me. I can't imagine if there is other way for her to live peacefully in life. I am not sure.

When I see the flowers blooming as if burning in the middle of the day, I remembered to look at my heart and problems again. Is it a big scar like the problem that my grandma faced? I have courage to reconsider the problems in my life and felt that I am not that bad in life. However, the flame of the forest reminds me of a girl who passed the same problems with me much earlier on earth.

Photographer: Pan Pon Pyin
Location: Chiang Mai Thailand