Beautiful tropical flora in Samoa...

One of the beautiful things that I've been able to learn about this trip to Samoa was learning about how to make lei from fresh flowers. Although I've made lei with many different types of material, it was refreshing to see how it was done in Samoa using fresh flowers, a needle and thread.

My aunt also gave me the cuttings for the possibility of growing some more flowers at our house here in Fasitoo-uta. It's so humbling to learn of how my parents when they first came to retire in Samoa was to plant a lot of different plants.

There are banana trees, pawpaw, breadfruit, mangoes, cotton, beans, taro, yam, pandanus (for making Ie Toga or fine mats), pineapple, coconut palm trees (often called the tree of life) etc.

There are some more plants that I'd like to plant as well in learning more about making siapo or tapa cloth, hibiscus bushes of different colours and other flowering plants too like teuila, frangipani, gardenia, tī of different colours etc.

So this particular trip back to Samoa has been one of learning a lot more about the flora of Samoa and some of the beautiful tropical plants that aren't readily available in NZ. I love the vibrant colours and looking at painting some in the not to distant future...