Text by Barbara Aria
Calligraphy by Russell Eng Gon

Hidden at first among the leaves of a plant, buds slowly unfold to become fully opened flowers. In the Chinese character for 'flower', the 'grass' radical is qualified by the character 'change', or 'metamorphosis': flower, the grass transformed.

The character for 'change' shown here is said to have been originally formed by the image of a man tumbling head over heels. But change was not always so closely associated with flowers; in the ancient form of the character hua, the flowering quality of the plant was expressed simply by the addition of more grass.