It’s been
only a week since I was here last time. Everything that can sprout has become
green. Tree canopies large and small make a lush blanket falling on me from all
sides. There is a rich aroma of a forest. However, I don’t know how I should
feel. Just in April I had seen a group of students picnic on a high ground
above the river. Their bright shirts contrasted with the white tree bark of
birches. It was beautiful. But that spot is now gone behind thick layers of
leaves. In a section where the river falls down a dam, I had spotted a girl
and two boys walking on their toes to cross the river. Their bodies bounced lightly
forward sometimes into each other. A dog happily followed them, singing and
dancing with them. Now they are nowhere to be found; and the river concealed by
a wide curtain of new sprouts disappears too. I am not sure if I will ever
find them again. |