朝生暮落花

我花园里种着两棵树，春天以后它们会开出紫色与白色。花有点像芙蓉，却是单瓣。每次等月色洗去了梨花妆，这两棵树便开花了。

在一年的大部分时间里，两株树都在不停地开花，几年前我练过一段书法，若无花可供，我便会采几朵下来插瓶。我并不太喜欢，因为花是没有芬芳的，而且，花瓣采下来以后，总是显得脏而旧，像村妇的容颜。

今天中午与父母一道吃饭，母亲谈起了她的50年代的童年。我有感觉，我在听一个语音版的《今生今世》的故事。东阳的一个小村庄，环村的清澈溪水，美丽而婀娜的少女们采摘下某种树叶，放在脸盆里，搓出黏液，然后用树液水洗头：她们都有长而黑的发，柔而低垂的眉眼。洗完了黑发与她们的玉体，她们便嘻嘻哈哈地往回走，走过自留地，顺手采几把豆角，一个茄子或者空心菜，在祖屋的附近还有一个做米粉的小作坊，东阳的米粉和江西米粉或者桂林米粉是不一样的，有一点像台湾米粉：细，口感却粗，我不爱吃。母亲说，那是因为你没有吃到过真正好吃的：她说做米粉，米粉本身已经熟了，用水车的木锤子把米粉压成一片片，然后通过机器齿，便成了一条条细粉丝。大人们会抓起一把粉丝，搁在碗里，放一点酱油和小葱，米粉还是热的，喷香喷香。

周末的时候母亲的姐妹们来探望她。我见母亲瘦弱的身体弓着，在阳台上与大妹妹聊天。中午母亲告诉我，她的大妹妹——也就是我的大阿姨——和她看到了我们住的楼房底下种着她们童年时代洗头的树，我十分感兴趣，便请母亲与我下去一起采摘树叶。

用脸盆接了热水，把树叶放在水里，仔细用手揉捻，渐渐的水就变得像鸡蛋清一样，然后把树叶捞起来，洗头，我还滴了一点柠檬精油，觉得自己满头都是清香。

母亲说她不知道这是什么树什么花，于是我便上网查，原来，这种就是木槿。很美丽的名字。我尤其喜欢槿这个字，右边，不蔓不枝，中正平和，有君子心性。这时我突然想起曾经读过一本《岭南笔记八种》，其实很早就有人提到过木槿花，它另有一个非常的美丽和凄凉的名字：朝生暮落。这时我想起我供过的木槿，果然摘下便失去了颜色。果然。

在唐朝的时候某个诗人还写过一首胡腾舞诗，我想那个美丽的胡人男孩，白玉一样肌肤和琉璃盏一样鼻梁的美丽男孩，就是这样缓缓起舞，最初跳的像《六幺》，后来越转越快，鼓和琵琶和笛子和阮咸和箜篌渐渐跟不上他的节奏，然后他突然一跺脚，稳稳站住了，他的脸朝着西方他的家乡，路很遥远，有沙漠里的独眼巨人，残月隐现在木槿花中，那样静的，隐现在沙仑的玫瑰之中。

是的，在英文里，在雅歌里，从童年起我们参加婚礼就为新人这样唱：你是沙仑的玫瑰，你是空谷的百合……朝生暮落花，像激情，爱或活着。

I have two bushes in my garden, for most of years they bloom in  pourpre and white 

I sometimes pick the flowers and put them in the vases, then write galligraphy with flowers' accompagnie. I didn't like this kind of flower, 1. it's not fragrant, 2. It soon lowers the head and fades. 3. the textile of pedals are dirty and ragged - after being inserted into the vase.  

Today at noon I ate the lunch with my parents. They told me about their childhood in the year 50s. Mom said in her village it was clear and quiet, people g0t on well with people, neibhors were just like a family.  Then, surronding the village there was a transparent sream. At that time you couldn't find lots of products in the market, so they just had the soap for clothes. There was no shampoo or conditionner. Then, since it's unconfortable to wash the hair by using soap,  they used a kind of tree leaves, put them into the water, then twisted and rolled the leaves, little by little the water would become thick as soap-water, and it was perfect to wash the hair. Mom said all the girls in her village had black, long, silk-like hair...

Last weekend my aunts came here to visit mom. One of them chatted with mom in the balcony, and they saw that kind of tree under our apartment, Mom told me while the lunch, I was very interested and asked mom to go and pluck the leaves with me together.

So today I have had my hair washed organically and naturally...that's true, if you roll the leaves, the water became just thick. I put 4 drops of lemon essence oil in the water, and it smells good...

Mom didn't remember the name of the flower, nor do I - I don't know what is it but I told mom I have two sames bushes in my house and when I go back I will wash my hair this way. So after showering I checked the online information, and found it is called in Chinese: 木槿

I do like this two characters, especially 槿，left side is the radical suggesting the tree (pictogramme), but right side, you will see there is no strokes coming out, kind of suggesting moderation, neutral position...it can go back to the Canon of Mean of Confucius, and that's why the character for prudent or prudence 谨 takes exactly the same right side, with left side suggesting speech.

I suddenly recall I read  a short stories collections of Tang Dynasty before. Over there the author mentionned once 木槿flower, and it has a name just beautiful, poetic, but ephemeral, like the petal itself：朝生暮落花：dawn-birth-twilight-falling flower. Yes it never lasts longer than a day. There is another poem of Tang dynasty, describing a dancer from West and Central Asia: those born-to-dancer were good at spiral dance, the beautiful young boy, with skin as white jade and nose as glaze bottle, with the accompagnie of flute, drum and pipa, he span faster and faster, and all the instruments jost lost their rythme. Suddenly he stopped, his face turning to west - to his hometown, and the waning moon (well, I prefer to use broken moon...) hid behind the flowers of Rose of Sharon.

Yes, in English, it has a well known name: Rose of Sharon: Dawn-birth-twilight-falling flower, like passion, love, life.