secret gardens

pamplemousses botanical gardens, mauritius

peradeniya botanical gardens, sri lanka

new york botanical gardens, bronx, usa

pietermaritzburg botanical gardens, south africa

hope botanical gardens, jamaica

rio de janeiro botanical gardens, brazil

botanical gardens are one of my favorite places to visit in a city. some years ago i went to the one in rio de janeiro with one of my best friends... and i am still completely taken with that experience. i remember the heat, and the metallic blue dragonflies that darted above the pond. i remember we sat for a long time, near each other but still separate, on a stretch of grass that was half in the sun and half in the shade. we watched the sun glint, and we heard the wings of  the dragonflies beat, and we felt sweat bead on our skin... and we didn't move, we couldn't. neither of us wanted to go anywhere, there seemed like no better place than there.  i remember neither of us said a word, but somehow we both knew we wanted to stay there, in that place, in that moment. i think about that day and those hours and i think i want to go back there. i want to retrieve that moment, that time. perhaps i will go hunting for it...and i will travel to as many botanical gardens as i can, looking for that same feeling. that would be fun. i will go to any and all of them... it won't matter where really, because there is something so secret, so magical, so glorious about any vast green garden in the middle of a city... they are like stumbling upon a childhood treasure... or wandering into a storybook...or managing to pause time, even for just an instant...