flower-planting, time, transformation, reborn
There used to be a lot of shops on the street where I live.
I have witnessed them gone one by one and turned into bars and cafes for hipsters.
The only shop that remains the same is the one at the end of the street.
Every time when I pass by,
Beneath its hunter green signboard,
Inside the shop sits a tailor in his white tank top.
Making clothes has been his life for the past decades,
Or even so, his life mission.
He is no ordinary tailor.
He only sews with old clothes and textiles,
Never the new ones.
He has got a mentee in the recent years.
His mentee couldn’t understand why the old Master
While he could actually use brand new materials,
Would rather visit households by households to collect their unwanted clothes.
The mentee is frustrated and couldn’t comprehend his mentor’s purpose,
For the fact that there are many limitations in used old fabrics.
The tailor then gave him a potted plant,
And told him to take good care of it.
He said, “Plants can’t speak,
but they can communicate through their visible traces.
Clothes also couldn’t tell their stories, but through their conditions one would be able to learn about how they were treated by their past owners”.
He also said, “The process of taking care of and transforming old clothes is fascinating”.
His mentee started learning how to take care of the plant.
And, also began to realize, by taking care and transforming used textiles and clothes,
is a way to bring them new lives.