Sakura Season

The grassy lane was lined with sakura trees, and during sakura season, crowds of excited tourists thronged beneath the pale pink flowers. Their awe-filled eyes gazed upwards with wonder as they marvelled at the beauty. “Look how the petals flutter in the wind,” they exclaimed to one another, “I can almost hear Mother Nature subtly reminding us of the fragility of human lives.”

Some stopped every once in a while, camera raised to capture whatever had caught their attention. Others wanted to eternalize the moment, and asked passers-by to photograph them with the cherry blossoms. Pictures are important, they would say by way of explanation, they immortalize the instant the shutters close.

Sparrows flitted through the crowd, touching down briefly to search for worms in the freshly overturned earth. The air was filled with the sound of their chirps, punctuated by clicks of the camera as voices murmured incessantly in the background.

A bit further down the path, the sparrows’ song were drowned out by a wave of human voices. Vendors harked their wares, each trying to entice the tourists to purchase a trinket or two. Much of their income depended on this season, on this brief period when the sakura bloomed and people from around the world gathered to gasp and express their awe at the sight.

It all ended soon after.The trees turned barren, caught in the awkward stage after the flowers had withered and before their leaves unfurled. Pale pink petals littered the ground, momentarily obscuring the brown dirt beneath until they too rotted away. As for the crowds, they vanished, and the vendors left to seek work elsewhere.

Nevertheless, the sparrows stayed. The path was quiet now, and their song rang strong in the absence of clicking shutters and human conversation. Dandelions too, those that lived despite the relentless press of travellers’ feet, stood taller amongst the trampled grass. “Look!” they seemed to cry, “I survived!”

The cheery, sturdy yellows continued to thrive under the bright summer sun, and could be seen dotting the grass at any given moment, had anyone thought to look.