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RE-flower
32
Tulips grow wild in parts of the world. But that’s not how we know them where I
live. We know them from the supermarket, where they appear earlier each year as
cut spring messengers.
The human-tulip relationship has a long history, from the initial cultivations
under the Byzantine Empire, through the tulip mania and resulting tulip bubble
in 16th-century Holland, to the industrialization of today.
My journey with tulips goes back to my childhood when my parents bought a house
with a garden that happened to come with a lot of tulips. There were tulips in
all the flower beds, but they were all mixed up in terms of colors and
varieties. At least, that was my mother’s perception…
So, I was tasked with attaching coloured yarn to the stem of the flower so that
you could still see the colour of the tulip after flowering. My mother’s
ambition was to later dig up the bulbs and replant them by colour.
Externally, I resemble the cultivated tulip: I
drive on the right side of the road and walk on the left. When I’m in a car, I
always stop at red lights… not so clear-cut when I’m walking and cycling 🙂
But inside, I am in an alarmed state: I appreciate my freedom of expression,
and I detest the use of force and war as a means of communication. I value
tolerance, and I dislike the might-is-right mentality. I appreciate progress
and development… as long as it doesn’t happen at the expense of everything else.
I believe in the fragile…
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