Human Flower Project
Pom-Pom of the Monsoon
In Bangladesh, the calendar is alive; kadam flowers signal the monsoon.
With kadam flowers to sell, Dhaka
Photo: Pavel Rahman, for AP
The Bangla month of Ashar began June 15, but only now has the rainy season truly arrived: the kadam trees have blossomed and, in the streets of Dhaka, boys are selling kadam flowers. Kadam (Anthocephalus cadamba) is traditionally believed to bring happiness and prosperity. The blooms are apricot-colored spiny balls, suitable for transportation to another galaxy, and from what we read the scent of kadam can accomplish that.
“Stephen Arctander describes its fragrance as being ‘woody-floral and sweet odor with a short-lived, but strong minty-borneol topnote. The dryout is delightfully sweet-floral, reminiscent of champaca and neroli.’ ” writes Christopher McMahon, an expert on perfume. He adds, “The tenacity of the fragrance is almost incredible.”
And from a chronicler in Pabna: “The deep and thick fragrance of this flower at rainy night fills the surroundings with a mystique atmosphere. Only those who have smelt it, can feel it.”
Mercy, we’ve never had the pleasure.
The kadam flower marks an annual miracle in Bangladesh: “borsha,” the monsoon season, stretching through the months of Ashar and Shrabon.
“At this time,” writes the 3rd World View, “parched lands are inundated with almost incessant rain and crops are harvested. Borsha is the most dominating season in Bangla literature, particularly in poetry as poets feel numb (with emotions) to write verses. They consider the monsoon a season of separation from the loved one, of nostalgia and nameless longing. They often use(d) to personify Borsha as a young woman pining for her beloved.”
Kadam flowers (Anthocephalus cadamba)
In the countryside, fishermen and traders would travel on bulging waterways far from home at this time of year, leaving families behind. And, of course, flooding which the rice crop requires takes a heavy human toll. Just last year millions of people in India, Nepal and Bangladesh were left homeless. Across south Asia, 1600 people died in the monsoon floods of 2004.
Bringing relief, estrangement, prosperity, and death, the monsoon is perhaps the most dramatic season on earth. What could be its herald but a strange and powerfully fragrant flower, the kadam.