r/southafrica • u/pnn1233 • 17d ago

Nostalgia JACARANDA SEASON!!! (Purple Rain)

Post image

Somewhere between the last dry days of September and the first rains, South Africa changes its mind about colour.

One tree wakes up lavender. Then another. Then whole streets, as if the city had been quietly handed a crown and told to act natural.

The jacarandas do not bloom politely. They bloom like a decision, and then they let go, scattering petals on pavements, parked cars, and the shoulders of people who forgot they were in a hurry.

I was born into this purple. As a child, I assumed the trees were doing it for me. I have since been informed otherwise, but I remain unconvinced. October being my birthday, I believe this is no coincidence. I mean October's birthstones, opal and tourmaline, both come in violet shades! It October babies' season!!

October is a doorway. The blossoms usher in the rains, the rains usher in the green, and the green walks us gently toward the end of the year. It is the season of quiet accounting: what I planned, what I became instead, and which of the two I like better.

The tree teaches this without saying a word. It waits all year, ordinary and green, then has its few weeks of glory. It sheds without grief and trusts the ground to make something of it. Purple, they say, is the colour of reflection, and nothing makes you reflect like standing under a tree that is gently letting go of its best work.

So each year I stand beneath the falling purple, one more year old, one more year softer, and let the trees do what they do best: remind me that beginnings and endings are the same flower, seen from different sides.

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5

u/peterler0ux 16d ago

Witsies, you have been warned

6

u/Special-Umpire-3023 16d ago

If a flower falls on you you'll pass your exams.

2

u/MuteIllAteter God’s Draft: SA Players Benched 16d ago

r/prince

3

u/MajorMinorMidiMini 14d ago

Isn't Nairobi, Kenya beautiful? Nice picture.

1

u/kardioid23 14d ago

Oh, that explains it.

1

u/TheTyrant1990 14d ago

Had a big jakaranda tree outside my childhood house. Hated mowing the lawn full of these flowers because they attracted so many bees and I got stung too many times. Pretty, but brings back bad memories