#5. Cherry blossom season is about to start

A time of renewal and optimism

Nature takes a break every year, magically reappearing again 🌱. This is a reminder to embrace each season and that change is a constant in life.

Photo taken in Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden in Tokyo during cherry blossom season in 2023.

Sakura season is about to start in Japan. Witnessing the short flower blooming season reminds us of the transience of life. In Japan, this time represents a time of renewal and optimism.

Growing up in a tropical country, I knew the wet and dry seasons. Only after living many years in Europe could I grasp the meaning behind natural cycles and appreciate leafiness. I never thought I would feel so lucky to witness plants' awakening.

I never thought I would be so fortunate to cross Japan from my bucket list. But it has been almost a year since that fantastic and inspiring trip.

Realising how time flies and how fleeting life is made me want to share some insights from that trip.

Tetsugaku No Michi, or The Philosopher's Walk, is a pedestrian path that follows a cherry-tree-lined canal in Kyoto, Japan. After just a few weeks into the cherry blossom season, trees had turned their flowers into leaves, leaving behind a beautiful path covered with petals.

What Sakura season teaches us

• Celebrate the little everyday things and appreciate the changing nature of our surroundings. In Japan, they take this appreciation a bit further. Did you know that the Japanese traditional calendar is composed of 72 poetic micro-seasons? Each is based on a particular natural event during the year. Here’s an article listing the different natural events if you want to learn more about these micro-seasons.
• Enjoy the journey and not only the destination. Cherry blossom season lasts a couple of weeks. Although it is a beautiful event to attend, it represents a very small part of a tree's life. To fully recognise its value, we need to see beyond the flowers. When we focus on the overall picture and all a tree can provide, we see its beauty in simply existing.
• A tree’s cycle is similar to self-development. Practice and discipline are essential to honing any skill, but it is equally important to rest, take a step back, and enjoy the present moment and what it offers 🌺 .
• Everywhere you look could be a source of beauty and inspiration. On this note, I want to share drawings I made while in Japan and under the Sakura influence.

This is a digital drawing inspired by a visit to one of the temples. Some women were dressed in traditional kimonos. Lately, I’ve noticed I use pink in a lot of my paintings. In the drawing above, I enjoy contrasting the blue and green.

This was a quick sketch after I went to an art supply store. That day, I bought some Holbein gouache tube paintings and wanted to test their colours and texture on paper.