blissbat > objects > hibiscus blossom

object: hibiscus blossom

The hibiscus blossom opens from bud to full bloom quite suddenly. (I'm frequently startled by blossoms that have sprouted overnight from the hibiscus bush in my window.) The blooms themselves are astonishing for their open fullness, the depth of their color, and the extremity and graceful droop of their sexual organs. They are simultaneously less formal and more erotic than a tulip, a lily or a rose. Only violets are quite so unrestrainedly, indecorously lush.

If the orchid is the unapproachable ice queen of sexual flowers, the hibiscus is a woman with wet, salty hair and sand between her toes lying in half-shade and reading something unexpectedly delightful. Her mouth tastes of limes and her skin smells like deep sleep and moss.

Kama, son of Lakshmi, is the Hindu god of desire. He carries a bow made of sugar cane and strung with a line of live honeybees. His five arrows are sugar canes tipped with five flowers that arouse the five senses and incite desire. The hibiscus bloom seems a likely candidate.

Rather predictably, Kama gets a bad rap in Buddhist tradition as a demon that entraps humanity in the illusions of love and death and desire. Certain ascetic branches of Buddhism are quite clear about the need to free oneself from desire, from illusion, from the world, in order to become enlightened and free of the cycle of death and rebirth. The hibiscus-woman needs no such freedom — not at so high a cost.