Feeling held by the trees of the season

The New Year is not remotely new but the leaves on many trees are! They’re not just new – they’re like lights, casting an aura of the same colour around them.

The Pongam trees wear neon green or sometimes lime yellow leaves. Peepal trees can be seen wearing pink leaves, or some – maroon. Those will become a delicate pale green and then a darker green – either way a stop-you-in-your-tracks sight that has to be breathed in. Golden trumpet trees have shed their long, dull green leaves for clusters of the brightest yellow flowers that have insects buzzing around them. Tabebuia – mauve, pink, lilac – are also in bloom. This is a great time to walk Bangalore streets and simply stop to stare at the glory of different trees.

I have not really done this though. I have been busy but managing to catch some tree sights and stopping to take them in. This is how I save my life every day. Somehow, at least one tree manages to hold my gaze and I sigh, let go of all tensions, pause and for that one instant – I am present to life inside and out.

The latter half of the last year, I found myself having intense conversations with Silk Cotton trees.

PC: Sarada Ramaseshan

We sang around them, hugged them, sat by them and had some pure “just being” moments in their vicinity. Such precious moments never leave your consciousness – this is the knowing I am grateful for!  

When I was at a University on the outskirts of the city to conduct a treevelling session, I met these young Silk Cotton trees whose trunks let out the most “don’t you dare hug me!” vibe I’ve ever seen. I suddenly saw that I have gone through this too – before I became a hugger, tree-hugger, hug-believer etc. I compared the trunk of the older Silk Cottons with these young ones and saw that some thorns from that adolescent stage had remained in the “adult” trees. And yet, people cannot but stop by to hug them – thorns and all.

What trees have you been watching, treeveller? Or what trees have been holding you in their hugs? What draws you to the trees around you where you live now? Tell me in the comments?