Living on the equator is a fine and wondrous thing. people told me I was lucky: permanent sunshine, hot days, warm nights.................. Summer everyday.
But what I have come to realise is that this is not the case at all... we have 3 season...we have Summer, Spring and Autumn. I have not made a mistake placing them in that order, I could have put Autumn, Spring, Summer...because the thing is ...we have them all...at the same time.
The sun shines all day(mostly), for 12 hours a day, with beautiful blue skies, unless it is cloudy, but they tend not to last long. The plants grow all year long, big beautiful trees and plants filling the rain forest. Dressed in every hue of green that you can imagine, from the deepest darkest green to the most delicate, almost translucent green. Trees growing straight and true, so tall that to try to see the top, to glimpse the crown is almost umimagineable unless you are lying down. The biggest leaves growing on bendy stalks blowing in the breeze and the tiniest leaves, closing when touched by a gently landing insect.......verdant is the only way to describe it...and summer.
And then there is Spring: which happens at the same time. Delicate buds and flowers opening on the trees: yellow like giant laburnum, the bright bright red of the flame tree flowers, delicate pink flowers that look like cherry blossom gently float down to the ground after a sudden cloudburst. New leaves appearing on the frangipangi plants in the garden and tadpoles appearing in the strangest places...puddles in the road: where you will them to move some where more permanent before they are slowly fried by the hot equatorial sun. A feeling a fertility and growth surrounds me everyday.
But at the same time....all around, the trees and plants hand with fruit and seed pods, fallen seed cover the floor , the ground is littered with leaves of every shape and every size, every hue and every colour. They float down , twirling, swirling, leaving the ground covered in a multi coloured carpet. And occasionally, just very occasionally there is a morning mist , rising from the jungle, and it almost feels as if there is a chill in the air, but only fleetingly, until the sun is up and over the horizon and it disappears on the dawn zephyr.
So you see, although the temperature may be 30C everyday, I am still blessed with the seasons, you just have to look for them.
