I had originally planned to write today about my experience running a public account, but after thinking about it, I decided to return to something from real life instead. If I want to hold on to a sense of reality, I need to step away from the online world from time to time and get closer to the world around me.
This pothos beside my desk is one such thing.
I brought it over from the desk opposite mine. There were three pots of pothos over there, so I simply took one and placed it beside my own workspace.
At first, I did not pay much attention to it. I just left it there and more or less forgot about it. Then one day, my academic supervisor came over to my desk to discuss some work. He noticed the plant and reminded me that I should remember to water it. Quite a few of its leaves had already turned yellow, and some had even withered.
From then on, I began pulling off the yellow or dried leaves whenever I saw them. Whenever there was water left in my cup that I could not finish, I would share it with the pothos.
It really does seem to need little more than water. Once it had enough to drink, its vitality gradually returned, and it even began to grow.
At the beginning of August, I had a two-week holiday, so naturally I left it unattended. When I came back, I found that only a few leaves had turned yellow. The rest of the plant was still full of life.
Whenever I feel tired from work, I sometimes hold one of its vines in my hand during a break, as though borrowing a little green life from it to replenish my own energy.
In poetry and literature, flowers and plants are often used as reflections of human beings. But I do not think this pothos necessarily has to symbolize anything about me.
It is simply a friend of mine.
It quietly keeps me company, and I quietly take care of it.
