Sunflower

 I do not remember when I fell in love with sunflowers. Or why I love them. I used to love small flowerets with tiny folded petals and light fragrance. When did I start loving such a bold flower, I do not remember.I saw them on my college ground once. Taller than me. Lush with green leaves and facing the May sun. They were so beautiful and wholesome. I loved them. 

And I watched them everyday till my last exam. Always standing tall above every other flower, their petals shining bright.

 Did you know that they are not only yellow? Although rare, white and pink sunflowers are always a heart touching sight.

  They were first cultivated in Mexico and America as a source of food. The flowers were cooked, the seeds were a source of oil and the stem acted as a building material. However they gained popularity when an Orthodox church forbid the use of all types of oil except sunflowers oil.

Scientific name of the flower is Helianthus, derived from Greek.

In Greek mythology the legend goes that once a nymph Clytie fell in love with Apollo, the God of Sun. But Apollo loved another nymph. Clytie couldn't bear it so she told the father of Apollo's beloved nymph about her ignominious behavior towards the Sun of God. The father, mad with fury, burried his daughter alive. 

When Apollo learned of his beloved's fate, he cursed Clytie, transfiguring her into a flower. A Sunflower. But Clytie continues to love Apollo till this day, that's why Sunflowers are always facing the sun.

That's also why they are considered the symbol of loyalty and devotion. 

In short, the Greeks didn't give a damn about phototropism and photosynthesis.

Vincent Van Gogh, the famous painter, was obsessed with sunflowers. 

Still life painting was quite common back then but usually painters didn't like painting sunflowers because apparently sunflowers were coarse and unappealing. That is the very reason Van Gogh wanted to be known as the painter of sunflowers. He painted a total of 11 art pieces featuring sunflowers.

Quoting van gogh:

 " Have you ever gazed at the centre of a sunflower? It's so beautiful, it should eat us. Alive."

 Yup, van gogh was quite sentimental with the flowers. One of his residences, was called yellow house because of abundance of sunflowers. He specifically decorated that house to host his friend.

William Blake used sunflowers as symbolism in his poem, "Ah- Sunflower".

In the poem he plays with the idea that life itself is a continuous state of longing for the unachievable. It's quite beautiful.

I have never liked any flower that much. It's just in a dark and gloomy world where everyone is scared of the harsh sun and stormy winds and everyone has sinister secrets and pitiful hearts and fake facades, there exists Sunflowers. I know it doesn't make sense. What does the world's brutality have to do with the existence of sunflowers? I know it doesn't make sense. But the thing is, it doesn't have to. I love sunflower. I do not need any reason to love it. I simply love it for being a sunflower. That's it.

And maybe that's how things work. Not everything needs a reason. There are some things that you do for no reason. Some things you love for no reason. Not because they are beautiful or because they help you in some way. You just love them and you don't have any reason.