ドイツに遅い春が訪れたある晩、夫が明日は早起きをして一家で出かけると言い出した。行き先はサプライズ好きの彼らしく秘密とのこと。目的地に思い当たりがないまま眠りにつき、太陽の光が差し込む翌朝、家族3人で車に乗り込んだ――どうやら西に向かっているようだ。スピード制限のないドイツのアウトバーンをひた走り、オランダの国境を過ぎる。もしかして……？ 淡い期待が、出発して3時間後に確信に変わった。到着地はオランダ、リッセ。息を呑むほどに美しいチューリップ畑が目前に広がり、文字通り言葉を失ってしまった。自然が作り出すあまりにも鮮烈な色のレイヤード、誘惑的な濃淡のパズル。花の絨毯と形容されるこんな情景が見られるのは、1年のうち1週間から10日間ほどの限られた時期。というのもチューリップの価値は花よりも球根にあり、花が咲ききってしまうと球根の栄養が花に取られてしまうため、ある時期が来ると花が切り落とされるからだ。 私の“死ぬまでにしておきたいこと”のひとつにオランダの花畑鑑賞があったことを、密かに覚えてくれていた夫。リッセの観光局に頻繁に見頃を問い合わせていた彼にとっては、今か今かと迎えた好日となり、私にとっては思いがけず小さな夢が叶えられた幸せな一日となった。リッセには“世界で最も美しい春の庭園”として名高いキューケンホフ公園＊1があるが、私の心を捉えたのは公園の周囲に点在する名もない花畑の光景だった。花畑には柵も壁も存在せず、自転車を借りて自由気ままに走ると、至る所でアート作品のような花々に出会う。切り花や整然とレイアウトされた花壇ではなく、まっすぐ大地に根を張る花の生命力とエネルギーに圧倒され、花々がどれほど強く人間の心を動かすのかを痛感する。 ところでチューリップが人を狂わせた、1637年の“チューリップ・バブル”と呼ばれる事件がある。当時オスマン帝国から輸入されたチューリップの球根に人気が集中してオランダでは球根が投機の対象となり、異状な高値がついて巨万の富を築く人もいれば、その後価格が100分の一にまで下がったせいで全財産を失う人も出たとか。世界最初のバブル経済事件の発端が、見る者を微笑ませるチューリップであったとは興味深い。 花の洪水を目の当たりにして優しい気持ちになれた帰り道、ケルンの街角で花束を抱えた男性諸君を目撃した。これから大切な人に会うのだろう。それにしてもヨーロッパの男性は、特別な理由もなしに頻繁に花を贈る。恋人やパートナーにだけでなく、友人、親、自分自身にさえも。花を前にすると誰もが心を開くことを、無意識のうちに知っているからだろうか。小さな夢が実現した日、装飾を超えて感情を伝える花との時間を、もっともっと増やしたいと感じた。 ＊1キューケンホフ公園　http://www.keukenhof.nl/ One evening when late spring was visiting Germany, my husband said we would get up early and go out as a family the next morning. He said our destination was a secret, in his surprise-loving way. I went to sleep not being able to guess where our destination was. The next sunny morning, the three of us got into the car. We were surely heading west. We drove on and on, on Germany's speed-limitless Autobahn and passed the border with the Netherlands. Could we be....? Three hours after departing, my faint hope changed into certainty. Our destination was Lisse, the Netherlands. Fields of tulips so beautiful that we held our breath unraveled before our eyes, and just as the words themselves say, I was speechless. It was an invitingly thick puzzle with layers of nature-made vivid colors. You can only see such a visual likened to a rug of flowers from a limited period of about one week to ten days out of the year because the price of tulips is in its bulb rather than the flower itself, and when the flower's have fully bloomed, the nutrients from the bulb are taken by the flower, so once that season rolls around, the bulbs are cut off. My husband secretly remembered that one of the things on my list of “Things I Want To Do Before I Die” was to see the tulips in the Netherlands. For my husband, who had been frequently inquiring into the tourism bureau of Lisse when the best time for the tulips would be it was a day he had eagerly welcomed. For me, it was my lucky day when a small dream unexpectedly came true. Lisse is home to the Keukenhof Gardens *1, famous as the most beautiful spring garden in the world, but what stole my heart was the scenery of the not-so-known fields of flowers surrounding it. There are no fences or walls around the fields, so if you rent a bicycle and ride around it freely, you can see flowers like pieces of artwork everywhere. I was overtaken by the energy and life force of flowers taking root in the earth, I felt in my heart how strongly flowers move people's hearts, being overtaken by the energy and life force of the energy and life force of the flowers taking root in the earth, not carefully laid out in flower beds and plucked flowers. There was an incident in 1637 called the “Tulip Mania Bubble” where people were crazy for tulips. Tulip bulbs imported from the Ottoman empire at the time had gathered popularity and in the Netherlands the bulbs became a target of venture. They acquired an abnormally high price. There were both people who made a vast fortunes from it and people who lost everything due to their drop to 1/100th the original price afterwards. It's curious that the world's first bubble economy incident was the tulips that put a smile on viewer's faces. On the way home from witnessing the flood of flowers and in a kind mood, I spotted a gentleman carrying a bouquet of flowers on a street corner in Cologne. He was probably going to see his significant other. Even so, European males often give flowers for no particular reason. Not only to lovers or partners, but also to friends, parents or even themselves. They probably unconsciously know that anyone will open their heart if given flowers. On this day when my small dream came true, I felt that I wanted to spend more time with flowers that could express feelings beyond decoration. *1 Keukenhof Gardens http://www.keukenhof.nl/