mango worshipper

[regnum-plantae]

Burbidgea schizocheila, Zingibearaceae

I’ve really been in the mood to write about something orange lately, so here are the striking inflorescences of the golden brush, much smaller, but just as impressive to me as the related beehive ginger (Zingiber spectabile) I photographed in a different area of Glasgow Botanic Gardens. Native to the island of Borneo, this clumping, tropical perennial is valued for its ability to thrive with little care even in relatively small containers, which the plant tends to fill completely within a couple of years if grown in the right conditions, putting up a fantastic show of contrasting colours. It prefers filtered light and shade and can do well indoors as a houseplant, as long as adequate humidity is maintained, while it’s perfect for a shaded border in a tropical garden, where it will also draw in plenty of wildlife. It generally tends to flower reliably in summer and winter for a period of about two weeks, over which numerous flower spikes emerge and bloom consecutively, but it can flower sporadically any time of the year.  

From what I can see golden brush ginger is not the most common of ornamental plants around and can be quite unusual and hard to come across in certain parts of the world, so if you see one at your local garden centre grab it firmly and do not let go!

[malayali-mango]

Tree of Rollinia Deliciosa

Rollinia deliciosa is a species of flowering plant in the custard-apple family, Annonaceae, that is native to tropical South America. It is cultivated for its edible fruits, commonly known as biriba, throughout the world's tropics and subtropics.

[malayali-mango]

[malayali-mango]

Sadhya (Malayalam: സദ്യ, Sanskrit: सग्धिः, Sagdhiḥ) is a variety of pure vegetarian dishes traditionally served on a banana leaf in Kerala, India. Sadhya means banquet in Malayalam.

The main dish is plain boiled rice, served along with other dishes collectively called Kootan (കൂട്ടാന്‍) which include curries like Parippu, Sambar, Rasam, Pulisseri and others like Kaalan, Avial, Thoran, Olan, Pachadi, Mango pickle, Naranga curry, as well as Papadum, Banana, plain Yogurt or Buttermilk, and plantain chips. The traditional dessert called Payasam served at the end of the meal is of many kinds and usually three or more are served. The 'Kootan' are made with different vegetables and have different flavours; some say the reason for including so many dishes in the Sadhya is to ensure that the diners will like at least two or three dishes. 

The most common ingredients in all the dishes are rice, coconut and coconut oil as they are abundant in Kerala. Coconut milk is used in some dishes and coconut oil is used for frying and also as an ingredient in others.

(Source)

[malayali-mango]

[malayali-mango]

Justifying oppression: Pitfalls such as cultural chauvinism and cultural separatism

Cultural chauvinism and cultural separatism are very similar to each other. While the humanistic viewpoint understands that all living cultures are always changing and developing, undergoing constant renegotiation, chauvinism and separatism both see cultures as monoliths. They both put cultures on a pedestal while denying the rights or even existence of the individual – at least outside their own culture. They both identify “other cultures” with social patterns they would never accept for themselves. The main difference is that when they say that people in other cultures deserve to be mistreated, the cultural chauvinism mean “deserve” in a negative sense (they had it coming for not denouncing their background in favor of mine) while the cultural separatism mean it in a positive sense (they ought to be proud of their culture and embrace whatever it gives them). In other words, cultural chauvinism and cultural separatism are both destructive. We need to stay clear of both of them.  

 — (Source)

[design-is-fine]

Coconut Palm, Cocos nucifera, From Köhler’s Medizinal-Pflanzen, vol 3,1890. Germany. Via plant genera. The medicinal guide was published between 1883 and 1914 in Gera and contains chromolithography plates by Walter Müller and C.F. Schmidt.

[divaniii]

[hqcreations]

So the last mango I grew - the seed pod kinda split while still in gestation. Now it looks like two mango stalks are growing from one seed. Wonder if these can be split into two separate trees.

The first mango tree is about 1 year old now, and 1.5feet high. Both are doing pretty well right now, but it’s going to be years we get anything. But at least the leaves are gorgeous!

[mysareewardrobe]

[malayali-mango]

[malayali-mango]

[malayali-mango]

[mysareewardrobe]

[malayali-mango]

[malayali-mango]

[malayali-mango]

On literary criticism, Letters to a Young Poet #3, Rainer Maria Rilke

But let me make this request right away: Read as little as possible of literary criticism. Such things are either partisan opinions, which have become petrified and meaningless, hardened and empty of life, or else they are clever word-games, in which one view wins, and tomorrow the opposite view. Works of art are of an infinite solitude, and no means of approach is so useless as criticism. Only love can touch and hold them and be fair to them. Always trust yourself and your own feeling, as opposed to argumentation, discussions, or introductions of that sort; if it turns out that you are wrong, then the natural growth of your inner life will eventually guide you to other insights. Allow your judgments their own silent, undisturbed development, which, like all progress, must come from deep within and cannot be forced or hastened. Everything is gestation and then birthing. To let each impression and each embryo of a feeling come to completion, entirely in itself, in the dark, in the unsayable, the unconscious, beyond the reach of one’s own understanding, and with deep humility and patience to wait for the hour when a new clarity is born: this alone is what it means to live as an artist: in understanding as in creating.