the big kapok

You may recognize this plant on the left. It's a commonly used indoor plant, more prevalent in office lobbies & spaces than anywhere else. It's presence can be an annoyance if you're left in charge to ensure it stays green. Not everyone has a green thumb right? Well, give this plant a couple of hundred years or more in its tropical home & look at the height it can achieve. This is the Kapok Tree. Are you looking at it closely? Pay particular attention to its trunk & roots because one extension of this root was taller than my 5'2" frame. It's mesmerizing when you're standing at the foot of this tree, because you realize how small you really are. And if you're a nature lover, you realise how lucky this tree was to survive all those hurricanes, not to mention the invasion of man. This beauty is sprawled at the edge of The Royal Botanical Gardens, just off South Shore Road. Surrounded by bamboo trees, it is perpetually a cool shady spot, no matter how much the summer sun decides to blaze on that particular day.