Inhalling a water lily flower at the age of eight in the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens I do believe was the first time I experienced intoxication. What it was I couldn’t say, but the combined beauty and eye closing aroma imprinted on me forever. Catching tadpoles from neighboring wood ponds in NJ., I brought them home to our own little garden pond where I watched them transform as their tails traded places for legs. Sitting on lily pads cartoon like, the frogs would sun until something larger than a dragonfly approached. My attraction to the Asian aesthetic surfaced again...more
