A Gift for Both
Among the Sunflowers
Sometimes all it takes is a small push.
A place we wouldn’t have visited.
Something we wouldn’t have looked at twice.
“I want you to photograph sunflowers.”
“I know where you can find them.”
I drove off my usual route.
Just after noon.
Direct sunlight.
Wasps everywhere.
Who spends more than an hour in a sunflower field at noon with the chance of being stung at any moment?
Yellow petals were the only part I already knew.
Everything else felt new.
Hundreds of tiny florets in the centre.
Fine hairs covering the backs of the flower heads.
Thick green ridges wrapping around them.
Beetles appearing and disappearing.
Ants minding their own business.
Wasps moving from flower to flower.
Every sunflower seemed to have its own little world.
The heat was relentless.
The sun directly overhead.
Sweat running down my face and spine.
Still, I kept moving from one flower to another.
Looking at them from the front.
Then from the back.
Then from the side.
Discovering things I had never noticed before in something as familiar as a sunflower.
It no longer felt like someone had asked me for a favour.
It felt like it had been done for me.
Thank you.
Wow, wow, wow, I hope you keep on doing what you do, Davor, because you are amazing at it!
Amazing shapes and colours!