A LOVE LETTER TO ROSE

You’ve been hailed as royalty among flora for ages, from at least the time of the ancient Egyptians, but probably long before that. After all, fossils of your ovaries and petals have been found from Norway to Mexico, Alaska to the Balkans—all millions of years old. You’ve been blooming for eons on this earth before we humans were even here to appreciate you—a humbling reminder that you, Rose, serve more than our human desires.

“Bloom or fade, the flower never cares about the arrival of spring; best peonies only appear in late spring and early summer, yet roses enjoy the four seasons with unceasing beauty,” wrote the Chinese poet Su Shi of the Chinese rose (Rosa chinensis) about 1,000 years ago. Rose, you are a prime example of beauty as medicine. And not only beauty—lush, bountiful, diverse beauty.

Ayo Ngozi