March 5

 

Yesterday evening, Sunmi came over to my house for tea. One of the things that we have in common is our love for tea. While she was here, I showed her some of the photographs that I made. Some of my photos had stories connected to them, while others were just beautiful moments that I wanted to preserve. 

 

One of her favourite pictures had a sad story along with it. It was a red sports car speeding along an empty highway, around the side of a mountain. On that day, the highway was empty and it was around 8 in the evening with the early sunset clearly visible in the background. I was standing behind the car, enjoying the sight of the red beginning to blend in with the sky. But seconds after I took the photo, the driver slipped off the road on a turn and the car tumbled down the slope, catching on fire near the bottom and killing the driver. 

 

Another one is a picture of a sunflower at midday. Those who do not know the story behind the picture might think that there is nothing special about an empty field with a sunflower in the front. Actually this day reminded me of a time in my childhood when I found a cocoon on a branch and created a nest for it in my room, waiting to see the butterfly emerge from its wrapper. However, weeks passed and I didn't see any changes. Eventually my parents convinced me that the conditions weren't right for the cocoon and the insect probably died, so I put the cocoon back on the branch. The next day, it disappeared. I didn't even find the shell of the cocoon near the tree. If you look closely at the picture, you can see a small butterfly sitting on a leaf of the sunflower. On the ground, beneath the flower, there is a small, brown shell that has been split in half. Although I didn't witness it, I think that the butterfly was born from that cocoon. 

 

My favourite picture is the one with a waterfall. In the center of the picture, there is a clear bottle that seems to have fallen with the water and is now heading towards the ocean. Inside that bottle was a white paper holding a message that I did not read because the bottle was very far from the shore. From now on it is a mystery that was not meant for me to discover. Now that I think about it, it is a good thing that I didn't try to read that message, because then I would not have this reminder that not all things that I was curious about were meant for me to know.