Imagery
Flowers (and Their Friends)
In Korean this is called doraji, and I hadn’t realized that the flowers were this pretty (doraji roots are a popular side dish in Korea). In English they are called balloon flowers, possibly because the flowers look like balloons before they open up—unlike most other flowers, which slowly grow out of buds, the balloon flower puffs up until it is ready to blossom, at which point the “balloon” splits open into the flower. You can see three such balloons in this shot: one behind and to the left, one beneath the flower, and one in the background on the right.
(6 July 2004)