Bunga Bulan Desember (Flower of December)

Been couple of days when I spotted a new flower collection at some street-vendor-ish plant nursery shop on the way home from work. It's Bunga Bulan December (Flower of December is the literal translation). I'm not sure its latin name or its official name. It's been years since I last spotted the flower let alone finding it at some nursery shop.

The sight of the flower suddenly brought memories back. It was on one of those rainy days when I asked my Dad about one red flower blooming in our garden. I was sitting behind a glass window watching the rain falling in our garden. It must have been some experience because I can still smell the rain, the wet soil, and I can still picture the wet green leaves and the shape of a red needle-like flower blooming. It's like taking a picture and saving it forever in my head. The only problem is remembering the picture gives me a feeling of longing for the past.

Seeing Bunga Bulan Desember reminds me of my childhood house that I have left but still miss. That house has too many memories -good and bad- that sometimes it's just painful to reminisce. A few years back, whenever I missed the house so much, I would have made an effort to drive past the house slowly. I never had the guts to stop in front of the house, though. I cannot imagine what the recent owners would feel when they see me. I stopped driving past the house after a couple of times. Not because the owners spotted me, but because the painful feelings grew stronger everytime I saw the house and its garden. It was not the house I left some years ago. I couldn't recognize the house and the garden anymore although the building stayed the same and the garden was there. There were just no green, no fresh leaves, no grass, no flowers. It was just bare and brown. I was broken-hearted. The past indeed belongs to the past.

The picture is taken from here and belongs to Januartha.