This is a glimpse into my little world. My house is located along a village road and I have to walk for some five minutes to reach the highway where I get a ride (bus or jeep) to wherever I go daily. The village road is well-paved but during rainy days, it goes down under some two feet of floodwater. Since rainy days come every year, every year the road’s flooded.

Well, 2005 was a happy exemption. There was not much rain, ergo, the mountains were able to absorb the rainwater. The dams of course, had no excess water to release. (Yes, no matter how those damned dams’ officials deny to high heavens that the dams are not to blame for the floods, they are to be blamed, according to somebody I know. But this topic is for another day).

Today’s a sunny day. And since I have a rather happy disposition at this moment, it is a good day to write about how my village road looks when it is not down under. It’s an ordinary road with weeds robustly growing on both sides. Some plastics and other pieces of garbage mindlessly tossed about by passersby are present, too. Fruits of a mango tree and a santol tree at the roadside fall on the pavement where they are mostly crushed by passing vehicles. Some children pick the good ones to eat – those with no worms crawling out. I have an old duhat tree in my yard, and the fruits fall by the hundreds onto the road, giving a violet hue to the road.

There used to be a tree in another portion of the road. There were times of the year when thousands of fireflies lit up that tree! Sadly, the tree’s gone, felled by super typhoon Chedeng a couple of years back. I don’t know what became of the fireflies who lost their home. I used to have a mango tree at the back of my house and yes, it was lighted by glittering fireflies, too. But the tree had to go because of termites.

My duhat tree hosts some fireflies, too, although not as plenty as those hosted by the felled tree. I read somewhere that when fireflies abound in a place, that place is free from pollution. I have learned too, that frogs cannot survive in polluted areas. Frogs make a real good symphony for my fellow villagers’ listening pleasure every after rain. That makes me feel blessed –residing in my unpolluted little world.

A little world full of flowers, albeit weed flowers that abundantly grow along the roadsides. It’s a wonder how they survive being under water for several days each year. Maybe they die a little, but when the water ebbs, they start to sprout, one leaf after another, until they carpet the roadsides again. Then the flowers come –very unassuming and without any scent, but sweet and gorgeous nonetheless.  One needs to look closely to appreciate their beauty.

This morning I gathered some of the weed flowers. I don’t know if God is partial with the color violet when it comes to weed flowers. I picked tiny, clustered violet ones. Another violet flower looks like a round spike, and yet another violet one looks like a bell.  And yet another violet flower looks like a woman’s private part. Am willing to give you a sample, but please don’t let me describe it here. Suffice it to say, it is lovely.

Then there are two kinds of blue small flowers, a profusion of yellow ones and there are also green ones. Some, which I’m not sure are flowers or little fruits.  A whitish green spiked flower with long green leaves adorns the road, too. And so does a long stem with pretty little nodes that look like flowers.

There. Creative writing so is not my forte so I cannot give justice to the beauty of the weed flowers. Nor am I scientifically inclined so I can’t give scientific descriptions either. But I can give you a little piece of advice. Look around you when you’re walking down your own village or city road. There will surely be some sweet, pretty little flowers waiting to be appreciated. And while you’re at it, give thanks to God whose creativeness has no bounds.