Ma Wendu: Sour Plums
Buying back persimmons committed to the Taihu Stone peach tree is really a sour plum tree, blooming without interruption for a whole summer. To be honest, I failed to smell its fragrance several times, but a tree of pale yellow small flowers has already permeated my heart, especially when the previous flowers have formed green plums and the back flowers are still tirelessly blooming, which makes people feel intoxicated and moved.
After a summer, the grass in the cracks has withered several times, and several bushes of wildflowers planted have actually sprouted and blossomed, contrary to expectations. Many visitors to the museum like to take photos here. In the future, when the museum is spacious, I will set up stone tables and stone benches next to it, and place teapots for leisurely tea tasting.
The autumn wind rose, even though it was not yet cool, the sour plums had quietly turned red, a tree with green and red fruits in a round shape, which contrasted with the small tree’s appearance. As a child, I often went to Beijing’s suburbs to pick sour plums, and when I was young, I was very resistant to sourness; despite the sour fruit, my teeth didn’t wobble or fall out when I took a bite, I was thirsty, and the taste lingered in my mouth. Back then, the small grocery stores in Beijing often sold a food called ‘sour plum noodles’, although it was made from noodles, it often presented block-shaped pieces, and when you bit into it, the sourness went straight to your nine orifices, so sour that it sometimes made you forget about the discomfort of your teeth.
I took a photo of the sour plum tree with a harvest of a year's worth of fruits. Perhaps it has already borne countless fruits in the wild, but for the main subject, this is the first year. I was hoping for a rainy day to wet the small tree like a beautiful woman coming out of the bath, but unfortunately, there were no clouds and no rain for several days, and the autumn wind also blew the sky clear. So, I brought a bowl of water and meticulously sprayed it on the sour plum tree, making the fruit and leaves immediately moist and look very beautiful. This made me realize that many things in life are half true and half false. Sour plums are real, rain is fake; feelings are real, scenes are fake; after taking a photo, I casually picked a sour plum and put it in my mouth, immediately my teeth were worn out, and the sourness was beyond description. Really, those who haven't experienced it don't know how sour and sweet life can be.
2011.9.30
