Mr Millington’s Tree

The Millingtonia outside the window has dropped all her flowers. They gradually wilted on her, yet remained clingingly thus, loath to part. But the seasons spin in an inexorable circle of constant change, and nothing deviates in Nature from its preordained cyclical metamorphosis. The long-stemmed white blossoms ultimately succumb to gravity, and imperceptibly, the green leaves begin to fade. Against the surrounding greenery, a gentle filigree of yellow draws the eye, as each yellow leaf stands out in relief, with an inner light of shining beauty. Contrasting hues in nature remain true to a palette, complementing one another. Garishness is more about being classily raffish than mismatched or jarring. Despite an infinite number of such show-offs, the Millingtonia is not one.

The pollinator-centric zygomorphic flowers, having done their time and exhausted their effulgent and fragranced fertility to the ceaseless attentions of a constellation of long-tubed or beaked sugar junkies, float down mutely to spread on the ground below in a floral chadar (blanket). They would normally enrich the soil through decomposed and leached nutrients but are “wasted” on paved urban spaces. The lightened translucent tree now has a refulgent crown. Enervated by the prolonged days of procreative fervour, shorn of all abhushan (adornments), this dweller of our gardens withdraws into herself to renew, reconnect, and revive through the fall and summer, until the wet season arrives and the restless sap permeates all parts and rejuvenates a glorious canopy.

During her quiescent time, she matures in the still-mysterious oneness of her world, growing, garnering sustenance and support from amorphous chemicals and seething seas of mycelia. A stitch in this myriad fabric she reaches out to bolster, stabilise, and provide succour to her co-dependents.

For the time being, her depleted canopy allows rays of the setting sun to enter the room with joyful warmth and a uniquely elemental sense of well-being. There are a trillion more worlds all around us if we deign to look. When we do, our place within them is revealed.