Impressions from Cashew Blossom Season to Moss Flower

After his first short story collection, The Life of Reed Grass, author Hong Nhan has just released the poetry collection, Moss Flowers, published by the Writers Association Publishing House in May 2025. This is the next mark of the writer, who is a teacher and passionate about writing literature.

Author Hong Nhan. Photo: NVCC

When I participated in the final round of the 1st Southeast Poetry Contest 2024, I discovered a rather impressive poem called Cashew Blossom Season . At the award ceremony held in Phan Thiet city ( Binh Thuan province), I learned that the author of the poem was Le Thi Hong Nhan, who is teaching at Phu Ngoc High School (Dinh Quan district).

The award- winning poem "The Season of Cashew Blossoms " by Hong Nhan begins:

We grow up

Chirping in the yard

Eastern sunshine and blooming cashew flowers

Red and yellow fruits hold on to childhood memories

Four-color ice cream sticks cool in the new season

Marbles, hide and seek…, the fun season is still unfinished

The full moon calls each other and giggles

The mark of the homeland is sent back to the village wharf…

A poetic sky full of beckoning. The image of cashew flowers like a red thread throughout the poem creates a unique poetic style. Through cashew flowers and fruits, the image of the sunny homeland of the East appears with beautiful childhood memories, the hard work of parents to save for their children to study in the city such as : The bees still hum and collect nectar among thousands of flowers/ We sweat in the garden, a prosperous place to nurture our aspirations ... And the cashew flowers and fruits have become a connection, a launching pad for the soul in the law of survival: Love for cashew fruits, the sun makes them strong/ Then quietly in the corner of the garden, they transform and wait/ The warm love nourishes the next crop/ When the cashew flower season comes, memories call each other ...

Cover of the poetry collection Hoa Moss by author Hong Nhan.

Cashew flowers are deeply ingrained in Hong Nhan’s memory. In other words, her love for her homeland and her ecological consciousness helped her weave a poem full of emotion and suggestion. Ecological consciousness also dominates Hong Nhan’s entire collection of poems Hoa Moa, filled with poetic images: flowers, fruits, rocks, rivers, seas, moon and stars, sunshine and rain, clouds and wind, the sun, the night…, whether expressed in free verse, luc bat or the new poetic form 1-2-3.

In the collection Hoa moss , the image of the rocks in Dinh Quan with Ba Chong rocks that Hong Nhan is attached to is one of the strong sources of inspiration, hidden in many poems, filled with many feelings. Let's go with Hong Nhan to listen to the whispering stone street :

One afternoon, I visited the stone street.

Listen to the whisper of the green day song

The sound of the wind, whose voice is so passionate?

Memories of a time of waiting and looking forward.

Stone is not just stone. Street is not just street. Stone street, mountain street through the poet's heart has become soul mate. Stone knows sadness, knows joy when the loved one is far away: Bach Tuong stands still/ Listening to the stone's tears mixed with white dew/ Love song listening to the scent of the sun/ May comes, royal poinciana flowers fall all over the hand ... Then from the nostalgia and love, a whispered wish arises:

Do you come back to our small hometown?

Listen to the mountain spirit echo from the past

Listen to the rock sing the rhythm of life

The sound of the school drum, your white dress flies.

Mountain rocks and sea rocks. Rocks of nature and rocks in people's hearts. The image of rocks is deeply rooted in the subconscious and appears naturally in many poems by Hong Nhan. Perhaps the poet of the rock town, the rock mountain town of Ba Chong is one of the writers who writes the most about rocks. And I have the feeling that the image of rocks is always present in every step, in every thought and even in her dreams: Wild flowers blend with fragrant rice/ A thousand years of rocks waiting as if sulking at someone (Ba Chong, rocks waiting) .

Stones accompany, share and incarnate into the woman's fate. Only stones and the night know the woman's hidden feelings. Strangely enough, in another context when "Stones move in the moonlight" , a strange space appears with a shimmering, magical beauty and stones seem to enter the Moon's Soul: The moon falls gently / Dew drops glisten on Ba Chong Stone / Lonely night / Soul of the street / Stones move in the moonlight / The moon embraces the sleeping Mai waterfall forest / The moon gently watches the Mo stream roar .

Like rocks, the moon and flowers appear frequently in Hong Nhan's poetry. That is also the tendency to express ecological consciousness in the collection Hoa moss :

I owe you, the moonlight has faded

The summer heat dries up the breathing

Purple Lagerstroemia blooms

Rain hesitates softly in the season of love

(Four Seasons Debt)

Confident with the full moon and afraid when the moon fades. The law of time in life is cruel, especially for women living in a state of gentle, hesitant rain in the season of love, leaving behind a lingering nostalgia/ The moon drifting on the deserted wharf (Sea of ​​Memories) waiting alone, longing alone, spreading its fragrance: The laurel cluster spreads its fragrance outside the alley/ Calling the sun to awaken the morning sun/ Calling you from the subconscious/ Fragrantly sending off the scent of longing (The scent of laurel and you) .

The image of flowers is sometimes hidden, sometimes visible, sometimes mixed, sometimes separate in Hong Nhan's poetry. Unlike the poems of many other female poets, which are often filled with roses, the flowers in the poems of the woman of the stone town have differences. Here are Bamboo Flowers :

spread a graceful silk ribbon

bamboo flower or sun flower

dry curve of the quiet afternoon

desire

And here is the lemon flower in Secret Love:

Why do I regret smiling?

Lemon flowers keep their white fragrance all night long

This morning spring comes to the doorstep

Last night there was a look that lasted a hundred years…

And especially moss flower, a special image that Hong Nhan used to name the entire collection of poems. An interesting, metaphorical image, conveying many feelings. A typical image with ecological consciousness in Hong Nhan's poetry:

No one else but you, the green moss

Durable in harsh environments

Waiting for love

Waiting for moss flowers when the season changes…

Phan Hoang

Source: https://baodongnai.com.vn/van-hoa/202506/an-tuong-tu-mua-hoa-dieu-no-den-hoa-reu-b7e122d/