The Night-Blowing Cereus

Flowers have long symbolized strength and resilience, reflecting their unique characteristics and histories. The night-blooming cereus, which blossoms under the moon, embodies renewal and the cyclical nature of life. Shell ginger, or Renealmia, symbolizes protection, vitality, and spiritual awakening, underscoring perseverance and inner peace.

Though beautiful, the rhododendron carries a warning—its toxicity symbolizes adversity and weariness. Similarly, the poisonous dragon arum, with its striking appearance and pungent scent, represents resilience and individuality. Historically valued in the Mediterranean for its medicinal purposes, it reveals the complex interplay of strength, healing, and danger.

Monet’s practice offered resilience in its own way—an escape through art when surrounded by the destruction of World War I, and his garden at Giverny became a sanctuary amid war and loss. “Yesterday,” he wrote, “I resumed work, it’s the best way to avoid thinking of these sad times.”