THE SCENT OF FLOWERS

May peace be upon you.

I first saw these flowers in front of somebody's house. Well I thought to myself wow! What beautiful flowers. So, I bought the plant for 6 quid, ok, 6 ringgit and planted it right in front of my house as a border plant.

Sure enough for this hardy plant, it thrives and flowers in no time at all. I have no idea what is the name of the flower until my mother came and casually said "oh.. you plant Harum Sundal Malam"

"What!" I exclaimed. In Malay we have this saying if you're suprise -'terkejut katak' roughly translated as 'shock as a frog'. That is what I felt when she said the flower's name is Harum Sundal Malam.

 Harum Sundal Malam means Scent of The Night Whore. Again, wow! Our forefathers couldn't be more explicit and expletive. What were our ancestors thinking of naming the flower with such a name? There are children around. If my young son asked me the name of the flower, I'm going to lie and invent a new name for it.

However I could understand why they call it Harum Sundal Malam. The scent of the flowers is stronger at night. When they are in full bloom, the fragrance will permeate through the whole house. The chilling thing about the scent, well... sometimes it smells really nice but sometimes it smells...like a dead corpse. Seriously...

When we were children if we smelled this scent while walking at night especially in a deserted area or a cemetery, we just ran helter-skelter. Many Malaysians believe it is the scent of a 'pontianak', a woman vampire!

But it turns out my mum was wrong. It is not Harum Sundal Malam. I'm relieved! At least I don't have to lie to my son. The correct name for the flower is Akar Dani. Another name for it is Drunken Sailor. Don"t ask me why... Maybe they were drunk.

This is how Harum Sundal Malam looks like...

I like planting fruit trees rather than flowers because flowers beautiful as they are, withered so easily. The only other flowers I ever  planted were snowdrops, bluebells and daffodils in front of my  house when I lived in Birmingham, UK. I planted them because they reminded me of the sea of snowdrops and bluebells I witnessed every time I walked through  Bute Park  near Cardiff Castle every early spring. Then came the pretty daffodils. What a spectacular sight, subhanaAllah.

God, The Almighty Creator made all things so beautiful and majestic . Be grateful we still have our sight and smell  to enable us to admire all these. SPRING HAS SPRUNG...