08.3.13 - Tenacious trees

Something a bit different today – have had a nothing-y day of boring flat admin and rushing about, so nothing much of note to report.

This is a banyan tree (I think). They spring up everywhere, even where there is no space and zero soil. This the best example I have been able to find – a fully-fledged tree sprouting out of a wall, sinking its routes into two roadways. Their powerful, sleek roots make them look exotic, and they have almost a liquid quality about them, oozing out of tiny crevices and gripping onto the wall like [WARNING – crap simile alert!] a leafy octopus.

There is also a slight hint of menace about their ability to thrive in the most densely populated, urbanised spot on earth. They give me a keen sense of how wild this place actually is, and how, were Hong Kong ever abandoned, trees like this would envelop the city as if it had ever existed in frighteningly few years.

On a lighter note, you may notice see old-fashioned brooms propped among the roots. Every morning, I see older HK Chinese on most roads wielding these brooms, sweeping out the night’s leaves and dust. I can’t work out if they are hundreds of small-time government workers; or just very assiduously tidy about ‘their’ patch of road. Either way, it’s very charming and I am sure it contributes to why HK, on the bigger roads at least, is one of the cleanest, neatest cities I’ve seen.