Jacaranda Trees: Smells Like Coming Home

The sounds all around me are captivating. I hear children laughing, dogs barking, cows bellowing, roosters crowing, and the rickety wheels of donkey carts on the earthen road outside my house. The sounds illuminate the village. But, recently, the sounds gave way to something even more potent - the sweet smell of the jacaranda trees.

Jacaranda trees bloom in October and their newly blossoming purple flowers have hypnotized my senses. When I step out of my house, the air is filled with their scent and it overpowers everything else. They are so beautiful. The smell brings me back to when I was 10-years-old and running through the fields at my old Willow Springs Road house, where the smell of lilac bushes were spellbinding. It reminds me of a time when life was simple and little purple flowers were among the happiest things on earth. It turns out that they still are. It is comforting in a really deep and meaningful way. The jacaranda trees make Botswana feel even more like home.