"Ah Sunflower"

As summer wanes, sunflowers' bright smiles and ceaceless work is going to end this year.

Ah Sunflower

William Blake (1757-1827)

Ah, Sunflower, weary of time,

Who countest the steps of the sun,

Seeking after that sweet golden clime

Where the traveler’s journey is done;

Where the youth pined away with desire,

And the pale virgin shrounded in snow,

Arise from their graves and aspire;

Where my sunflower wished to go

Even when weary of time or buried in winter snow, sunflowers and we alike never cease to aspire for and strive for the sun or the life-giving source which is equally above us all.

I had longed to see a vast field of sunflowers, so I included a visit to the sunflower fields at Nanko-cho, Hyogo prefecture, in the itinerary when I had a trip to Ushimado (this post), Okayama prefecture.  The flowering sunflowers in the fallow fields was a lovely view.   They are grown for sunflower seed oil.

I had thought their yellow faces followed the sun, but they somewhat looked down  smiling to the passers by.  I wondered why....maybe their heads were too big?

Then I understood: on sunny days buds of the sunflowers track the sun across the sky from east to west and by dawn they return to face eastward.   After the bud blossoms, the stem stiffens and the flower becomes fixed facing the same direction, mostly eastward.

Matured flowers work scattering the seeds from dawn to dusk to new life:  farmers know it.   Farmers have devoted themselves to take care of sunflowers and others despite the weather: sunflowers know it, too.  Both of them work silently and steadily as they have each other watching over and smiling at.

  Some scinentists reported that sunflowers as well as rape blossoms decontaminate the radioactive contaminated soil.  Radioactive cesium is similar to kalium, a common fertilizer.  If kalium is not present, sunflowers will absorb cesium instead.  Not to disperse cesium by burning harvested sunflowers, special type of bacteria is considered to decompose the plants.  On the governmental side, this is in experimental process. This summer, sunflowers in plots are blooming to be examined in Fukushima.

On the other hand, some entreprnears have taken more active leadership.
Sunflower radiation absorption project  (Japanese here)
Fukushima Sunflower Foster-parent Project (Japanese here)

Some people cast a doubt about the effect, so I look forward to the result of the experiment.  When it turned out effective, more extensive operation will not only make the ground safe but also increase enployment and attract more tourists.  As the flower of hope, sunflower's selfless devotion to the mankind has been and will be really appreciated.