szinesmalac89
- Mar 22, 2023
- 3 min read

“Look inside, to see the Colors!…of the Ume Blossom.”

Okinawa Flower Adventures Part 2

KEY TO YOUR COLORS

watercolor on paper, 2023

Is it snowing in the mountains?

No there are just the Ume blossoms opening in the deep jungle of Okinawa.

I visited the most popular Ume watching place, the Plum Road, Oshittai, in Nago.

The flowers were not in full bloom yet, but I don’t like to go when there are a lot of people… I can not hear the flowers that well…

How could I paint this breathtaking scenery, without using any colors.

It is really challenging to paint white flowers…

I love the scenery so I wanted to paint the Road, but also practice some blossom painting too. Since I didn’t have much time, I did both in one painting.

And I did not like it at all…. It is too difficult.

This painting is not pretty at all.

I always have to remind myself:

But the point is not to paint something pretty!

The point is to learn something from the conversation.

To find something new to tell.

So what did I find? Standing and painting under the bees, constantly being busy collecting that honey from the Ume. So What can I collect from here?

Colors.

I found the colors on the black mountain, inside the white Ume forest.

I found it following the bees, looking inside the little white flowers.

How precious was that little time I could spent in the magical Ume forest on the top of the mountain!

But it was not enough! I want to know more about those beautiful vibrant colors you hide inside your blossoms!

To discover more about the colors of the Ume flower, I travelled to Uruma city, near the Ishikawa River.

I found a lot of gorgeous Ume trees blooming, enjoying the sunny morning, under the blue sky.

But I wasn’t the only one curious about the Ume flowers.

I sat down next to a bush of vibrant pink roses, who were staring at the blooming Ume tree. Why would the most pretty and graceful flower be interested in a bunch of little plain white flowers?

“I stare at this naked slender ballerina, stretching, reaching towards the sky, in a pose that seems like she also tries to hide from the sky, but she can’t… I stare at her for months…

And finally she starts blooming… little white flowers that looks like a cloud, just like she is wants to be the part of the sky… But at the same time she is protecting something… what is she hiding?” That is what the roses were wondering about

I had a guess, about what they hiding….

And as I got close, it blew up into my face!

The real colors of the Ume flowers.

It might appear white from the distance

But I know that into that white cloud, there are lots of vibrant colors hiding

Between those straight brunches, stretching into the sky

Locking those color into a cage.

Roses open up and share their colors with us, we can see them from the distance, they want us to enjoy their beauty. Because they have their big blossoms to support them, and their thorns to protect them.

But the Ume blossoms are different. They have their colors locked up in a cage. A cage that you can not open, unless you have the key.

I thought that was it. I thought a lot about it how to “free the colors of the Ume”. But they didn’t tell me anything about that…

Until I discovered a tiny Ume tree next to my supermarket last week!!!

What? I travelled hundreds of kilometers to meet them, and they are here at the next street??? So tiny tree, with just a few flowers… but that gave me my answer.