August Lavender

     [I]


    I love Provence so much, or more precisely, I love the lavender that grows there.


    [II]


    Lavender is the beautiful garment of Provence. Blooming from June to August, the lavender forms the most romantic scenery in Provence…


    [III]


    When I was 14, I watched a TV series called "Lavender." The female lead was named "Yi Xun," and she and her lover made a promise about lavender, promising to reunite when Yi Xun turned 20… It was then that I learned that the flower language of lavender is waiting for love. I love violet lavender, so I told myself early on that I must go to Provence someday, no matter what. That "land of lavender" is also a small wish of mine. Go to Provence, see the lavender, and smell its cool fragrance. What a pleasant feeling!


    [IV]


    Let's elope to Provence together, to the romantic violet lavender fields. A promise we made.


    Legend has it that in Provence, a young woman and a handsome young man fell deeply in love and decided to elope to the young man's rose-filled hometown. Before leaving, the girl, following an ancient custom, threw a large handful of lavender at her lover to test his sincerity. Purple smoke rose, and her lover vanished, leaving only the words, "Actually, I am the heart that longs for you to travel far away."


    Is Provence truly so romantic?


    【V】


    Memories are like lavender; the stories that happened here are like yesterday's smoke, faint and gentle, so faint yet etched in the heart…


    The scent of lavender is neither as delicate as jasmine nor as intense as night-blooming jasmine; it's more like durian. Those who like it will love it dearly, while those who dislike it will avoid it after just one sniff. This unique fragrance is always linked to a deeper, more distant melancholy. Melancholy, yet not resentful, like the pale moonlight after autumn, like longing across mountains and rivers. Lavender is almost a footnote to melancholy. Those who love lavender must be very emotional, people who cherish everything.


    [VI]


    In fact, lavender blooming from June to August is not as easily found as a dream; it often grows deep within the Provence region. In the Luberon Mountains, the lavender fields of Sénanque Abbey are the most famous lavender viewing spot in the region and the setting for the story of "A Year in Provence," hailed as one of the most beautiful valleys in all of France. There is a 12th-century abbey on the mountain, and in front of Sénanque Abbey are vast lavender fields planted by the monks of the abbey. In the Schmiedernes Mountains, the ancient Castle Rotonde is surrounded by a vast lavender field, its purple fragrance spreading endlessly.


    In late August, the locals hold a "Lavender Festival." Men, women, and children of all ages in the town dress in the elegant clothes of ladies and gentlemen from the last century, riding bicycles or horse-drawn carriages from a hundred years ago, leading their cattle, sheep, chickens, and ducks, carrying soaps and perfumes made with lavender, medicinal pillows stuffed with lavender seeds, and locally produced honey, nougat, fruit, and melons. From pottery and clay sculptures to stalls set up in the woods outside the village, the air is filled with a faint fragrance.


    [Seven]


    The language of lavender: waiting for love. When the flowers bloom, love arrives, and the lonely are no longer lonely; the desolate heart is no longer desolate. Memory, perhaps, is a temperature, a story, a picture, a color, a fragrance…


    When the wind rises, it is your scent, the scent of love that has been here…

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