A museum of thoughts

bonsai || 10 dec

No, you don’t know anything about bonsai. so sit down, and I’ll talk about it. For all those idiots, let me tell you a shocking truth: Bonsai is not a type of tree. Surprising, right?, its an art. It’s the art of making a normal tree, yes, even a gafah tree if you’re stubborn enough and convincing it to stay tiny by giving it a shallow container and a strict childhood.

“Bonsai” in Japanese means planted in a small pot. That’s it, it’s not a spell, it’s not genetics. It’s just you putting a tree in a plate and telling it, “Congratulations, buddy, your whole life is this bowl now, do your job.”

The goal of making bonsai is to make a miniature version of nature. Like you’re playing god but with scissors. You sculpt, wire, trim, and micromanage the tree until it looks like a realistic full-size tree, just. fun-sized, you could say, it’s not for medicine, not for food, not for anything practical. It’s purely so someone can walk by, look at it, and go:

“Oh, wow, cute tree.”

-” Yes, I made that. Praise me.”

The art is ancient, over 2,000 years old, started in China as penjing, spread to Korea as bunjae, to Vietnam as hon non bo, and eventually Japan went “Yeah, we’ll take that,” and perfected their own version for about a thousand years. So no, it didn’t magically appear from TikTok aesthetic.

its a patience sport, you’re raising a tree like a child: feeding it, trimming it, shaping it, hoping it doesn’t die, but unlike children, the bonsai listens, stays small, and doesn’t disappoint you.

And the price tags?
Don’t get me started. You think bonsai is a cheap hobby? No. Some of these mini-trees cost more than a car. Imagine selling a tree the size of your forearm for the price of a Toyota. That’s bonsai.

People grow bonsai because they like beauty, discipline, suffering, and having something to brag about when guests come over.

Bonsai is basically:

That’s the art of bonsai.

thank you

Ahmed