If every person has something called a “desire”, I have a desire to preserve the colour of plants and to surround myself with them.
Sweet flowers, lovely berries, swaying grass in the wind and lush tree leaves. I want to keep them as they are at this moment.
All this time, the desire has driven me to dye threads with plants and weaving them into a form of cloth.
These past few years, my desire has extended beyond dyeing and weaving. The plants have been used to make botanical specimens and/or immersed in salt to increase the preservative effect and maintain the flavour too.
Following last year, I made salted Yaezakura (double cherry blossoms) of 70% bloomed this year, but this time, I have also tried to dip them in white plum vinegar to give off their colour brightness. The fragrance is reduced by half, but it is also an experiment to see how much colour I can keep.
On the other hand, the colour of Yaezakura that has been soaked in salt from last year has faded, but they shed the gentle fragrance of cherry blossoms which makes me feel a sense of elegance.
Magnificence is good but Sabi* is good, too.
I feel myself deeply greedy as I find the both elements attractive for preserving but it seems that the greediness is definitely vital for my energy.
*Sabi: The beauty from serenity that comes with age.