[attr="id","hydracol"]XIULAN TSUI

[attr="id","hydracol"]源於自然，超於自然

according to the principles of lingnan penjing, a caretaker must dutifully clip and prune the branches of a bonsai to create a natural silhouette.[break][break]

spring from nature, exceed mother nature: the advantage, the school of thought says, is that as the tree grows and is pruned that the branches will naturally develop proportionally. it can take years to train. decades, before it even begins to prove the work is not meaningless. always: the leaves are plucked away by a careful hand. it'd be a shame to hide those remarkable branches that he painstakingly clips at every fourth bud to force it to grow away from itself. [break][break]

it is a style that is born of an inherent love for what the natural world provides. [break][break]

it is idolatry. [break][break]

a harmonious construction—his father remarks once, with his untrained eye, that this tree is how things ought to look without human intervention. his father does not understand that this tree does not grow independently of them. [break][break]

a limb is clipped by a great-grandfather and the valentian nobility starts to lose their ground. another breaks by an aunt's account, and they are smiling as the tsuis quietly untethered themselves from its branch families. his mother, the first of her family and the last to ascend it, considers the rot when she sees it, but chooses to feed it instead. so has been done for centuries, and so is expected to continue until the end of time. they are an ancient tree, determined to survive past its destined expiration with snakes for its roots. humans, instead of nutrients, and diseased with something that's long spread past their garden. [break][break]

so, fine: there is rot in him, and it is entertaining the way that his family pretends that they aren't born of the same sickly thing. it grows through a mycelium network inside of his bones. the decomposition reaches for itself, to let it be known that it's safe to grow here and splits itself between the roots and its leaves. the leaves fall uncontrolled, and the family tree bleaches white. spring from nature, exceed mother nature: this is how an old family outlasts death in a war that kills the forest. this is how he was born to be a ghost.[break][break]

a branch sits, waiting at the base of the tree, and a cousin holds the pruning scissors at the fifth bud ( too late ): "we will renounce our family ties to hydra." [break][break]

that is the problem with amateur gardeners who do not know when to stop watering, who do not know or care to know how to take care. eventually, their naivete eats away at their charges more than the rot. they do not know the way that the roots have already gnarled or wasted, nor do they know to be thankful for its survival earned in the absence of his own.[break][break]

with normal plants, it's a solution of one parts hydrogen peroxide and two parts water to ward off the infection. a simple and easy remedy. with trees, the solution is more complicated. it requires that when the rot spreads too far, the best that can be done is to remove the afflicted roots. [break][break]

but, that requires uprooting it. that requires acknowledging failure. [break][break]

the family dares to bloom. that they believe there is a way beyond the way they have lived all these years when they have taught him that there is no way to grow but up. without leaves, and without want: the laws of their natural world. this is according to the principles of lingnan penjing. a caretaker must dutifully clip and prune the branches of a bonsai to create a natural silhouette. [break][break]

spring from nature, exceed mother nature: they are people that intend to grow, and he holds the shears to close around their throats. ( it is idolatry. ) flowers need water to bloom. he knows all they have inside them is blood.