The Lily Issue

After another walk in the Botanical Gardens where I felt like a private detective snooping around taking photographs while couples lounged in the sun, I was pleasantly struck by the amount of lilies that populated the waters edge. This thought then led to the realisation that this meant an increase in beggars or hawkers who would be selling these handpicked lilies on the side walks. This then led to a smile because of how grateful I felt toward the hawkers who take their time to pick flowers from the edge of any water source in Grahamstown. This would mean that I could finally afford to buy flowers to brighten my dreary room.

My boyfriend, after handing over a bunch of flowers and witnessing the love that suddenly poured out of me, asked what the fascination is with flowers. I replied that it was a cheap and easy way to remind us of how much you care and so forth. He scoffed at this because he said that the bouquet had cost him R100 and so would not be able to continue this gesture on a regular basis. I realised that once again the ‘love’ industry has managed to exploit something that we should be getting for free and so although the hawkers exploit the natural resources for their own gain, at least it is only costs us R5 or R10. But I know that the price should be the least of our concerns and that we should all begin to learn to love flowers in their natural environment because there is so little left.