Yanjun Liu, G1, Shenzhen College of International of Education

I have been confined in my apartment since the Lunar New Year. School is closed and so are shops, movie theaters and all other public places. My only pastime now is to have a view from the balcony. And the view is bleak. Streets are deserted. And every apartment building is enclosed with walls of huge plastic blocks with social workers in full protective suits and goggles guarding the entrance. The virus has gripped the entire city in its terror.

But this morning something special caught my eye. The kapok blossoms have bloomed in their full glory. Basking in the sun, the kapok blossoms have tinted the garden and lanes in bright scarlet. Looking from my vantage point, they seem to have inflamed the entire residential compound. Unlike other flowers which depend on leaves for shelter and foiling off, kapok blossoms clinch to bare boughs in clusters competing vigorously and proudly for the sunshine.

They need no affectation or self-assertion. Dignity and honor is pronounced by their existence.

The kapok blossoms are heroes among flowers. They perch high on braches of tall erect kapok trees. Without fawning flavors by yielding to capricious touches of passers-by like pot flowers, they stand tall praying only to the sun. They do not condescend to offer shades and hues of diverse colors in solicitation of preference. Instead they exhibit their entire zest through pure unadulterated scarlet. And they burn themselves up to cheer up those who care to keep their heads up. Once you are under a kapok tree, your sky is resplendent with glowing clouds of blossoms. Unfolding above you is a splendid painting of flames on the canvas of the sky.

A kapok blossom measures five inches in height and two across in an oblong-ellipsoid shape. A kapok tree can attain a height of 70 meters with its trunk three meters in diameter. Kapok trees are found in South America, Southeast Asia and southern China, and they are highly esteemed in the places where they grow. As the Mayan legend goes, the souls of the deceased climb up the old kapok trees to step into the heaven. On Hainan Island, people often recount a legend of the kapok hero. As it goes, there was a tribal war on the island a long time ago. A tribal leader named Ji Bei led a courageous battle against invaders. However betrayed by one of his followers, he was besieged by enemy forces on top of Mount Five Fingers.

Riddled by a thousand arrows, he stood erect in death. He was reincarnated as a kapok tree with its blossoms imbued in his blood. In Hainan, Kapok is also known as Ji Bei.