In the courtyard of a village home stand green shade and a variety of lovely flowering plants and creepers. When evening falls after sunset, the whole place fills with enchantment, writes Nazim Al Mamun. Following that enchantment leads to the foot of a beli (Arabian jasmine) bush swaying with white, fragrant blooms. Sitting for a while in its shade, in a courtyard lit by the flicker of fireflies and cooled by a gentle southern breeze, feels like resting in the shade of paradise.

It feels like a place where an endless life could be spent in laughter and joy without sorrow. The calls of birds, the flutter of butterflies, fireflies glittering in the moonlight: nature's enchanting beauty fills the eyes and the heart, until it seems there is nothing more to want from life.

Beli flowers bloom in the evening, spreading their scent, and drop the next morning. At dawn they lie on the ground like pearls. Those pearls draw the writer as if awakening an endless longing of love. With a small bamboo basket he gathers the fragrant, pearl-like flowers and strings them into garlands with needle and thread. One he gives to his mother with love. One he keeps carefully beside his bookshop. Another he keeps for the one person who is ever awake in his loving heart. The remaining garlands he gives to students as gifts to inspire them.

When neighbours come to buy garlands, his heart stops him from selling them, so he sometimes gives them away as gifts. He does not like to sell things he loves; rather, he finds satisfaction in giving a beloved thing to someone who likes it, just as he finds joy in standing by people in need.

The beli bush is very dear to him, because with just a few of its flowers he can win people's hearts and become dear to them. Nothing in the world, he writes, brings more joy. Besides beli, the family courtyard has many other flowering plants, some fragrant and some colourful but without scent.

Over the gate stand madhabilata, the bougainvillea (bagan bilash) loved by Rabindranath Tagore, and right beside it a red hibiscus (raktajaba). The courtyard turns colourful, smiles and charms everyone with its scent. There are also marigolds, roses, sunflowers and other plants. These flowering plants are his only wealth: he has little else to give to win people's hearts, except these flowers.

The writer is a poet and executive director of Global Onbik Research Hub.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.