Oleander

Oleander...one of the central flowers of my childhood in Guyana...South America...along with hibiscus...and frangipani. The sight of it in bloom...in pots that have to be moved inside when the harsh winds of winter blow...in my adopted North country...stir memories of my childhood. The internet dictionary says that there is also white and red oleander...but pink is the colour that I associate with this tropical gift from the East Indies...to Guyana...and other countries by the equator...growing freely under the sun and warmth where there is no winter...and now in places of the North like Canada to be shifted around in pots...come summer...come winter. Although many of us immigrants to Canada are not of the "pink" persuasion...I sense a metaphor blooming...for us free range equatorians...now in the North. Yesterday...on the back balcony of my building...I took this picture of the said bloom...otherwise known as "rose bay". As I was leaving the balcony...most likely...as I had done many times as a southern child...I moved my face closely next to a cluster of pretty pink petals...still fulsome despite the pot they had sprung from...to sniff the fragrance that I once knew well. Strangely...or not so strangely...their tropical scent had vanished with their
transplantation..............Quester,