BONSAIS

“To scale all love down to a cupped hand’s size”
Edith Tiempo

Trees are spectacular creations of nature. Be it a solitary Whistling Pine (Casuarina equisetifolia) on a windswept hillside, a veteran Bodhi (Ficus religiosa) towering above a busy traffic intersection, or a sprawling Banyan (Ficus benghalensis) granting divine ambience to devotees in a temple compound, the gorgeous splendour of these giants is breathtaking.

The art of Bonsai seeks to recreate the striking beauty of mature full-grown trees in small pots. The word ‘Bonsai’, translated literally, means ‘tree planted in a container’. However, Bonsai is not simply a tree planted in a container, but a miniature artefact of exceptional beauty created in a pot. Thick tapering trunk, textured bark, prolific branching, twig ramification, foliage pads, flowers, fruits, deadwood, all these accentuated by a shallow container – who would not be astounded by its majesty! While viewing a Bonsai masterpiece, the viewer would be awed and humbled by the magnificence of nature, and amazed at the perseverance of living things clinging to life in the face of adversity.

Every bonsai is a labour of love, crafted by the bonsai creator with love, care, patience and skill. In her award-winning poem “Bonsai”, Filipino poet Edith Tiempo says, “To scale all love down to a cupped hand’s size”. She means that bonsai epitomises how love can be shrunk down, in order for it to be managed, so that it can be given it out to others. Bonsai is a celebration of nature’s magnificence in a miniature form that can be given away to others, may be even down to generations, as is customarily done in Japan.

‘My Bonsai Adventure‘ started in 2009.

Presented is the fruition of my effort…..