My kind of paradise
I was just in Hawaii, visiting my friend Judi.
photo by Judi
I know most people go to the island state to soak up the sunshine, but as this photo shows that wasn’t my favorite part of the trip.
As much as I love the beach in all its permutations...
...the intensity of the Hawaiian sunshine made it impossible for me to spend too much time contemplating the loveliness of the blue water.
Which isn’t to say I didn’t try repeatedly to take in the famed beaches.
In the end though, I left the sunbathing to the professionals…
...and headed inland.
I have something of a fascination for photographing plants…
...and Hawaii was certainly a rewarding place to do that in.
There’s plenty of my favorite color around…
...and so many shades of it.
Not to mention all the textures…
...and flowers…
...whose lives I know nothing about.
Sure, the plants there come with green leaves…
...but also with red ones…
...and pink ones…
...and lavender ones…
...and deep purple ones.
There were even fall colors to remind me the leaves were changing elsewhere in the US.
I can’t count the number of times plants astonished me with their colors.
There were the more usual colors like red…
...or white.
But also nuances that were especially bright…
...and sometimes even bordering on neon.
This red dragon fruit may have been sort of bland to the palate, but the color made up for the flavor easily.
And not everything was prettier than it tasted. I definitely enjoyed much pineapple and mango—of the properly ripened variety, nothing like the nonsense that makes it to markets on the mainland. I even discovered my new favorite food: apple bananas (the bananas pictured above may or may not be of that variety). Found only on the island, these bananas are smaller than the ones the rest of us know, and firmer and tangier too. Delicious.
I did not eat this…
...but apparently I eat some part of this sometimes.
It’s a nutmeg tree.
The tropical ferns threw me a bit.
They are so solid.
Ferns to me are by definition lacy or at least divided into many leaves…
...but once I got used to the idea of them I was completely enchanted.
I also enjoyed the many versions of this plant type. A similar shape to the pineapple plant and always with the water caught in the center.
This one even came all crosshatched.
I was a little paranoid about all new plants I was meeting.
Some of them seemed a bit dangerous…
...and all of them were so entirely different from anything I’d ever encountered.
Less plant…
...and more animal.
Warm to the touch…
...and always seeming to move a bit!
I’m a fan of photographing prickly things...
...and especially thorns.
And for that reason, this tree charmed me.
This one too, though for entirely more Dr. Seussian reasons.
Colorful.
Growing in all the strangest ways.
photo by Bekah
It makes a forest look so different.
photo by Bekah
While I was in Hawaii, I also got to see Nick, a friend from high school.
It’s funny to reconnect with a friend in such an exotic place.
It’s as though the strangeness of the surroundings made us seem that much more the same.
As though we hadn’t changed a bit…
...not in comparison to the world around our friendship.
Palm trees are everywhere on the island…
...and I did take advantage of their shade some while I was there.
I wasn’t the only one. There’s a lizard in this photo.
In fact, lizards are another thing that’s everywhere on the island.
Once I started to notice them…
...they were easy to pick out even when they weren’t being so obvious.
The birds were another notable part of my tropical adventure…
...and they seemed to be watching me as closely as I was watching them!
This sort of pigeon was everywhere on Oahu, and its distinctive call is the sound of Hawaii to me.
Altogether, going to a place that’s widely considered paradise was a good lesson for me.
A lesson in defining my own version of paradise.
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CATEGORIES: - Philosophy - On photography -
(8) Comments / Commentaires: My kind of paradise
Thank you so much!
Lovely, lovely photographs. Isn’t nature fantastic?
Fantastic and very photogenic too!
I LOVED this photos. So incredible, magic, and surreal. i felt like I was entering another world. And what ceases to amaze me is the artistic hand and detail of the Divine. Really quite breathtaking. Thank you for sharing your beautiful finds with us, I might have to consider this more microcosmic approach to exploration next time I’m out for an adventure!
bisous!
-Char
Thanks Char!
Lovely visuals - you might want to consider publishing a book of them. 
Thank you! Maybe one day I will make a book of photos!
Matilda...
You do realise that you are a poet and a philosopher.These photos are a marvel and your captions engaging to them.
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