These days, from time to time, a good friend told me: where there are large rape blossoms, where there are many rape blossoms, and where rape blossoms are particularly beautiful. I smiled and thanked him for his kindness. Photography lovers often say how beautiful and spectacular the rape blossoms are in Wuyuan, Jiangxi, Luoping, Yunnan, Hanzhong, Guizhou, Anshun, Hubei and Jingmen. I believe it all. I can't go if I don't talk in the distance. The rape blossoms in Dapoxi of Luxi and Qingxi of Xiushan are also very big and photogenic.
I don't like shooting rape blossoms very much. To be precise, I'm not good at flower photography. The moment I started to have a fever when I first learned photography, I took a little bit in dribs and drabs, but I didn't take it well. There are no ugly flowers in nature. Flowering is the reproductive behavior of plants, which is a beautiful thing, just like our wedding, which is the brightest and brightest time in our life. All kinds of flowers are beautiful, some are wonderful and rare, and some are simple and ordinary. In addition to expensive or beautiful flowers raised on the courtyard balcony, ordinary flowers in daily life are also beautiful, such as pea flowers, cotton flowers and potato flowers.
Some flowers are very special and are endowed with many personality traits in people's minds. Such as plum blossom, lotus, magnolia, chrysanthemum and so on. It is often used by literati to express their ambitions and feelings. Mr. Xiong Xiling, a prodigy of Phoenix and prime minister of the Republic of China, wrote a poem about cotton, "This gentleman is warm in the world". Some time ago, Mr. Liu Hongzhou wrote an article "Snow fragrance? Xiang mei? Mo Xiang prose entrusted me to take some photos of plum blossoms in the snow. Two days later, it was snowing, so I took some photos and sent them to him. I don't like any of them, saying that I have no sense of thought and art, and I haven't photographed the spirit of plum blossom. I didn't say anything too vulgar for me. I came back and thought about it, took a few more pictures and sent them to me, thinking that I could almost shoot plum blossoms. I can't shoot rape well. The key is that I didn't shoot her unique temperament and personality.
I don't like shooting rape blossoms, not that I don't like rape blossoms.
There is another reason why I don't shoot rape flowers. Rape flowers and rape are too familiar to me. When I was a child, my father and I planted rapeseed in the countryside, hoping that the rapeseed would germinate neatly, pick the moss robustly, bloom brilliantly and bear rich seeds. Rape and plum blossom have the same characteristics, or the same personality, willing to be lonely and not afraid of cold. In warm winter, rape pulls out the moss too quickly, blooms too early, and the rain and snow freeze, so it can't pollinate. The more snow there is in winter, the more lush and strong the rape is. Bended over by the heavy snow, the snow melted and lifted my head high. The ice on the frozen leaves is still vivid after melting. Thick snow covers the leaves and stems of rape, like a quilt, which can keep warm. After the snow melts, supplementing the soil with "nutrition" and water is beneficial to the growth of rapeseed. After 1999, by the time of the vernal equinox, all the rapeseed in the field had blossomed. Rapeseed should not rain during flowering and harvesting. Rapeseed needs spring breeze, butterflies and bees to help pollinate during flowering season. When rapeseed is ripe, it is harvested and dried to remove the shell and seeds. Too much rain, uneven pollination in flower season, insufficient pods and weak seeds. If the rape is soaked in the rain for too long, it will burst and fall off naturally, and sprout and grow seedlings on the trees in the field, which cannot be recovered. Take it home, there is no weather, it will germinate in the sun for a long time, and it will not squeeze oil.
When the cut rape was dried, grandma bent down and carried a rocking box (a round bamboo weaving tool, the depth of which was similar to that of a rich bucket) to the rape field. We carried the rape into the shaking box one by one, rubbed it slowly with our hands, patted it gently with a wooden stick, and then picked off the stalks and pods. When the sun is too dry, rapeseed pods often break during transportation, and rapeseed is scattered in the ground. Finally, grandma chose the scattered places, picked them up one by one and put them in the laundry basket.
Judging from the sensory reflection alone, rape flowers are small, unattractive, single petal is extremely single, pure yellow is monotonous, and the variety is single, which is not good-looking among hundreds of flowers. There is no expensive peony flower, enchanting peony flower, delicate begonia flower, graceful chrysanthemum flower, beautiful camellia flower, elegant orchid flower, gorgeous lotus flower and fragrant osmanthus flower.
However, rape also has its own different beauty. At the time of seedling emergence, two small oval leaves grow symmetrically on the head of the small stem, and the breeze blows like a group of children stumbling to learn to walk. In the early morning, dew condenses on the branches and leaves of rape, crystal clear, like pearls, reflecting in the sun. Dewdrops condense on the buds that have not yet blossomed, and there are diamonds and horns under the refraction of light, like big diamonds embedded in a ring. Covered with thick snow, the curved leaves are covered with thick snow, like an old woman bending over and carrying a lot of cotton. The ice and snow are frozen, and the leaves are covered with a thick layer of ice, which can be clearly seen through the mesophyll patterns on the ice leaves and slowly pulled down. Ice is a complete leaf with stalks, veins and flesh, just like a high-grade crystal handicraft. In spring, a little light rain falls on the leaves, from less to more, merging into water drops, gathering more and more, and finally sliding down the veins, gathering and falling, gathering and falling, like a lover's sad tears. Rape blossoms freely, impudently and brilliantly, as if competing for spring. Pieces into pieces, from a distance, like a huge yellow satin spread on the earth. Whether people come or not, butterflies and bees are all here. Butterflies are flying in the flowers, chasing and playing. Bees suck honey from stamens with their mouthparts, and when they leave, the pollen baskets on their legs are full of yellow pollen.
I like rape and rape blossoms, which are the habits of rural people. Every time I go to the fields, it is very kind to watch farmers hoe and sow, divide seedlings evenly, fertilize and weed. It is gratifying to see that the leaves of rape are thick and green and grow gratifying. I am very excited to see a bay of flowers, golden and brilliant. Looking at the rainy day foggy, wet and continuous, I am very anxious. It is very satisfying to see the rape pods full and strong, and the rape flowers are black and bright.
There are two kinds of edible vegetable oils in my hometown, one is camellia oil and the other is rapeseed oil. Old people say that vegetable oil is more nourishing than tea oil, so vegetable oil used to be more expensive than tea oil. Now there is less tea oil, which is more expensive than vegetable oil. Country people mainly eat rapeseed oil. I prefer harvesting rapeseed and eating rapeseed oil to appreciating rapeseed flowers. I think rapeseed oil cooking is particularly fragrant and delicious.
When I was a child, my family had a large population and a small labor force, and I lost money every year. I can't bear to eat vegetable oil, most of them are sold in the market for rations, and a small part is left to cook at home. Grandma is very frugal and seldom puts oil in cooking at home. Grandma put a cotton ball the size of a thumb with chopsticks, dipped it in an oil drum, and then painted a circle around the bottom of the pot to drain oil. There is no oil star in the fried dish. After the fried vegetables are cooked, some crumbs of vegetable powder will stick in the pot and spatula. Grandma scooped a spoonful of water, put a spoonful of salt and cooked a pot of soup. There was no oil star in the soup. We still think the food is delicious, the soup is delicious, the food is happy and the jar is dry. Every time after dinner, grandma will roll out the residual soup in the bowl with her index finger, suck it in her mouth, and sometimes lick the soup that she thinks is very oily. A few years ago, I watched the movie Nine Homes and saw Song Chunli's mother licking the bowl. When I look back again and again, my eyes are full of tears. What a wonderful performance! Just like my grandmother I live in a high school. On Monday morning, my grandmother helped me fry the dried sauerkraut pickled by wild rape moss early and made a marine porcelain jar, which I ate for a week. Although there is little oil, you can smell the fragrance of vegetable oil, as well as dried Chili powder and minced garlic, and there is enough salt, which is not only delicious, but also endurable.
Yun Jian is a distant relative of mine. He is only eleven or twelve years younger than me, but he is a junior. He works in the town government. His father died early, and there was only one old mother at home. A few years ago, every summer when the new vegetable oil came on the market, they gave me a barrel of freshly squeezed new rapeseed oil, which was planted and harvested by their mother, sometimes 30 kg, sometimes 40 kg. Every time I look at this vegetable oil in a daze, I fantasize about how his old mother grows rape. It should be hunched, cultivated in the autumn wind, protected in the cold winter, fertilized in the spring rain and harvested in the hot sun. Every time I eat this dish fried with vegetable oil, I feel delicious, and it smells of affection and sweat. He has stopped sending me vegetable oil in recent years. When cooking with oil, I will still think of his mother, who is getting older and older. I wonder how he is and how he is doing.
Many people like rape flowers, just like flowers, which are lively, gorgeous, endless and golden everywhere. But I don't know where the real beauty of rape flowers lies. Why is it beautiful?
A few years ago, a very powerful photographer called several beautiful young girls and ran to the countryside to shoot videos in farmers' rape fields. Girls' dresses and headscarves are beautifully dressed, strung together in the rape field, running and jumping among the flowers, regardless of the feelings of rape flowers, fiddling with cauliflower at will, cutting off a rape flower and tying it into a big bundle, waving it in your hand, then picking off the petals, holding them in your hand and throwing them into the air, watching them fall from the air, making an effect in slow motion and matching them up. See my heart a tight! The scalp is numb! I called immediately and gave a good scolding. He said that he gave the owner of rape twenty dollars, which didn't make the farmers suffer, and even made me laugh and cry. It is understandable that you accidentally broke the rape. It's irritating to spend money deliberately destroying rape blossoms. He did not destroy the rape in the field, but hurt the feelings of farmers, insulted the dignity of workers and trampled on the beauty of the world. My friend probably thinks what I said is reasonable. I removed the video from my circle of friends and forgave my rudeness as a countryman with deep feelings for the land.
They don't know that rape was not for us to see, not for us to pursue romance, but for herself, for spring, for nature, for the world and for the owner who cultivated her. For a "beautiful" movie and a "beautiful" picture, people who trample on rape blossoms are not worthy to appreciate rape blossoms, and it is estimated that they can't shoot rape blossoms well.
I like rape and rape flower from the bottom of my heart, because she is always so simple and beautiful, unpretentious, selfless, not obsessed with the trend, not drifting with the tide, not grandstanding. Most importantly, rape blossoms have warmed my heart and nourished my body since I was a child.
[Editor: Li Jincheng]