Simplicity has its fans and that’s me you see in the forefront, cheering wildly. Don’t get me wrong though, I do love the elaborately decked up, but only when it is someone other than me at the decking-up end.  Simple styles in clothing, hairstyle, simplicity in speech, and writing, elegant homes with minimal furnishing are all my favorites. It is no wonder then that I love the cosmos, that obviously simple flower, and no wonder that Ruskin Bond’s words on the flower in his book My Favourite Nature Stories, touched a chord.

The cosmos has all the genius of simplicity. The plant stands tall and erect; its foliage is uncomplicated, its inflorescence are bold, fresh, cheerful. Any flower, from a rose to a rhododendron, can be complicated. The cosmos is splendidly simple.

Doesn’t it ring absolutely true?

©Shail Mohan 2018