Leiflife

By Leiflife

Gift From Katrina

In the months following Hurricane Katrina, after much of the debris had been cleared away, surprising plants emerged from the ravaged earth. In the spaces left by destroyed houses and fallen trees, sunflowers stretched toward the hot and empty skies, nodding their heavy yellow heads at the admiration that accompanied our grief. Along the side of the roads that had known the bare feet of our child selves, were cantaloupe plants. With little left of the accustomed shade that made such sun-loving plants impossible in times gone by, came the flowers that prepared for the fat, sweet fruit. On the hill below my house that was, achingly, still standing, there appeared an amazing quantity of tomato plants. From my porch, where before there had been thick underbrush that screened me from the road, I could see the fruit ripen and redden in the heat of a summer that seemed to last forever.

The yucca plant, from which the flowers in my photograph bloom, is still on my hill. Though crowded by the underbrush that has returned with a vengeance, each year I can count on the lush and luminous blossoms to gleam whitely through the trees. While all those other plants that rode in on those violent winds and waters have long since been gone, the Yucca remains...a hardy and beautiful reminder of a terrible yet magical time.

Extra photos of a hibiscus and yellow lilies...

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