Quan Am Bamboo Cluster - Thai Nguyen Electronic Newspaper

Spring came, the weather gradually warmed up. Spring rain gently flew, gently sprinkling tiny drops of water on the leaves and branches. New shoots emerged from the leaf axils, covering the trees in a new jade green coat. The moist ground was soft like a sweet sponge cake, the seedlings split seeds, eagerly pushing up through the thin layer of soil.

With a few gentle and decisive movements, U Thi had pulled the young bamboo plants out of the pots, placed them on old newspapers and tied them up neatly with string. Nearly a dozen plump, green bamboo plants on the clean tiled floor without a single speck of soil spilled, would soon be taken away and lovingly cared for by other plant lovers.

U Thi's house is located in a small neighborhood, close to the street, with an area of ​​just over a hundred square meters, always attracting the attention of passersby because of the myriad of colors of leaves and flowers. When it comes to gardening, growing plants and flowers, everyone agrees that U Thi deserves to be an artist. Rarely does someone love plants and is meticulous and persistent like her.

Once, the office's "beauty queen" Ngoc Bao was given a bouquet of imported roses by a boyfriend, with strange colors and seductive fragrances, everyone liked them. Everyone said: "U Thi, please try to breed this super beautiful rose". The beautiful Ngoc Bao was always busy and carefree, so a month later she brought back a few withered flower stems, feeling guilty and explaining that she was on vacation at home and her mother saw all the flowers withered and threw them out on the fence. However, less than half a year later, on Bao Ngoc's desk there was a vase of fragrant flowers, even more beautiful than the bouquet she had received that day.

Sitting and chatting with each other, everyone in the office often said that Thi was born under the Wood element, so she had a knack for planting trees. Her personality was gentle and simple like an old woman in the countryside. Thi belonged to the class of experts with the longest seniority in the office, so the young people called her "Thi". The office had few people, clear job positions, each person's work had little conflict, everyone respected and loved each other, the atmosphere was always harmonious and warm. The desk work was light, the income in addition to the salary based on the coefficient also had this and that allowance, many outsiders looked at it and dreamed.

Skillfully piling soil around each bamboo root, U Thi was lost in her memories. About forty years ago, also on a drizzly spring day, her father went somewhere to ask for a bamboo root. That year, he was not yet fifty, he said, my grandmother was starting to get weak, our family planted this bamboo clump to make a beautiful cane for her. The old man built a square basin about one meter on each side right under the kitchen window to plant the bamboo.

When it was first planted, it looked like a green sugarcane, with almost all of its branches and leaves trimmed to reveal a plump, plump trunk, with each segment bulging out, looking very funny and beautiful. Soon, the first leaves spread out, then lush and green. From a plump sugarcane, the bamboo transformed into the shape of Guanyin Bodhisattva with a thousand graceful arms. This is why people call it Guanyin bamboo.

It was not until five years later that the bamboo tree intended to be used as a walking stick for Grandma was cut down. It was truly a perfect walking stick, each segment of the bamboo looked as if it had been skillfully carved and polished by a craftsman. Grandma happily showed it off to the elders in the senior club, who all raved about the rare and beautiful walking stick and each of them signed up for one.

U Thi inherited her grandfather's talent for gardening. He trained his daughter to be meticulous and persistent. Bamboo is the easiest to grow, it is not picky about soil, does not require care, and is resilient in all weather conditions. But if you rely on it and ignore it, the plant will get sick and gradually die, and soon the whole clump will wither. The old man whispered that bamboo has long been a symbol of the uprightness and integrity of a gentleman, of strong will and progress. Our bamboo clump not only helps cool and beautify, but also helps us always have a peaceful mind, and have a way of thinking and acting appropriate to the situation.

The bamboo pot has been present on the porch of U Thi's house for the past forty years, always green. Bonsai enthusiasts often choose an odd number of plants, but this bamboo clump always has twelve plants, not counting the bamboo shoots, rounding out the twelve months of the year and full of the twelve zodiac signs, with old plants, young plants, and immature plants. Each stage, each age, the plants have their own appeal, never boring. In a small area, the bamboo clump is not crowded, but only evokes a feeling of safety and protection.

The old man said, young trees are like children, needing protection and nurturing, but even more so needing to be exposed to the sun and wind, so that they can quickly become strong and mature. Like the bamboo pot in our house, if we want to develop, the next generation must be better than the previous generation, and to do so, we must take a lot of care and nurturing to succeed, not just "when the bamboo is old" then "shoots grow". The old man had many times felt sad and regretful, but he still resolutely cut down the beautiful bamboo tree to make room for the bamboo shoots.

U Thi let out a sigh of relief, the gentle spring breeze blowing through was enough to make the bamboo leaves flutter happily. For many days, she had been thinking about the policy of streamlining the staff. Of course, someone with good expertise and many years of dedication to the agency like her could not be considered “redundant”, if anything, it was the young people who were still wet behind the ears and had many mistakes in their expertise.

Thinking of the young people, I couldn't help but smile. Their generation is dynamic, very different from an old woman like me. The young people are careless and careless in their work, but their professional knowledge is admirable. They used specialized software and quickly completed it, then invited each other to buy coffee. When they came back, they saw me still struggling with the handheld computer. They gathered to help and taught me how to use the applications.

Looking at the young people working, I understand that the diligence of my generation is no longer an advantage, technology is completely replacing human labor in many fields. Honestly, besides my work experience, my knowledge has started to become outdated, I find it very difficult to approach new software.

In terms of work efficiency, any of the other guys are “better” than me. Assessing in a fair and objective manner, I see myself as the person who needs to streamline the agency the most. For bamboo to form a forest, bamboo shoots must have a place to grow, must have space to grow, old bamboo must give way to young bamboo is the law of nature. Having thought it through, I decided to submit an application for voluntary early retirement so that the agency can conveniently rearrange the apparatus.

U Thi chose some small bamboo trees that she really liked to plant in mini pots on her desk. She would give them to Ngoc Bao and the children as a parting gift before leaving the office.

Source: https://baothainguyen.vn/van-hoa/202503/khom-truc-quan-am-c322418/