Have you seen Xianghuazi?

Have you ever seen Bo Lai Ye? A friend asked me this during a casual chat. After searching through the flowers and plants in my memory, there was still no impression of Bo Laiye, so I had to tell her: I have never seen it.

She said calmly: This Bo Lai leaf is not a flower, but an aromatic plant. It is called Pelai Ye here. A more accurate statement should be: Pulay leaf. In summer, pick a few slices and soak them in boiling water. When they are cool, take a sip. That's the fragrance!

The fragrance is really refreshing. After drinking this fragrance, you will never forget it for the rest of your life! This is a true green aromatic plant, and it's easy to grow. Just get some local yellow mud and plant it after the Qingming Festival. It will sprout soon and grow two young leaves as big as sesame seeds. Then you watch the sesame-sized green leaves grow up slowly. When the leaves are as big as broad beans and the seedlings grow to about a foot tall, you can use them to make tea every day. I love drinking tea all year round, but as soon as I drink it, I feel that tea has no taste...

Listening to her words, I couldn't help but be fascinated. When you make tea with such fragrant leaves, the fragrance will definitely linger on your teeth and cheeks, and you will be sweating all over after drinking it. Maybe every pore is exuding the fragrance. My friend laughed when he heard what I said. You really can relate to it, but it’s not unreasonable. Legend has it that in ancient times, some people dried Pulay leaves and stuffed them into pillows. They slept with them on their pillows every day and woke up with fresh fragrance all over their bodies. I will take some photos for you tomorrow to give you a perceptual understanding of it.

On Chinese Valentine's Day, if you don't go to see the far-off Altair, the bright river, or the night market lights like daylight and the moon like a small silver hook, you'll sit on both ends of the phone and talk to each other endlessly. It’s also enjoyable. Suddenly, a familiar shadow flashed through my mind. The Bo Lai leaves my friend mentioned looked so much like the fragrant flowers I used to see when I was a kid.

? She pondered for a long time and answered me: I have never seen it. Never seen it? Then let me tell you, how can I compare it with you, a Bodhisattva? These fragrant flowers are so fragrant...

When I was a child, every girl had fragrant flowers in her braids. They were running around with fragrant flowers. In my father's words: The girls are all fragrant. Not to mention us girls, those adults, wives, grandmothers, aunts, mothers, they also like to wear it. Some of them have never seen or used perfume in their lives. The fragrance smells much better than perfume. Fragrant flower seeds can also relieve itching. If you are bitten by a mosquito, just pick off the leaves, rub them, and stick them to the mosquito bite. It will be cured in a while.

Nepeta japonica looks very similar to fragrant flowers, except that it is not as fragrant, the leaves are smaller, and their flowers are almost the same. My dad loves to drink, and he likes to mix this with cold dishes, and yes, that pork head. My mother uses it to mix cucumber shreds, pound some garlic to make cold noodles, and scramble eggs. Oh, I can’t say more. Speaking of this, I feel hungry and want to eat it. The friend on the other end of the phone was laughing again: You are the most enthusiastic person when talking about these things, and I am also greedy for talking about them.

When I hung up the phone, I still had lingering thoughts, and the aftertaste was still there, making me feel sad. My loved ones in front of and behind the house came towards me one by one...

In the vegetable garden behind the house, fennel, patchouli, perilla, galangal... patchouli and fennel are grown together. The leaves of patchouli are a bit like mint, and the leaves of fennel are not leaves, but short whiskers like hair. Yes, it's also very fragrant. When cooking fish at home, I will pick some Patchouli leaves and put them in to remove the fishy smell. When making dumplings and steaming steamed buns, I will use fennel leaves as fillings. You can also roll them into steamed dough and steam flower rolls. If you feel unwell and have no appetite, I can cook some rugosa water and perilla water...

I have never understood why I am so sensitive to the fragrance of plants. I can often clearly distinguish the fragrance of flowers, trees, vines, and herbs. It turns out that this is what I was used to smelling when I was a child.

The next day, when I received a photo of Bo Lai Ye from a friend, I was so surprised that I almost shouted: This is Xiang Hua Zi! Bodhisattva leaves, fragrant flower seeds, oh, after all these years, you are still here!