My most-frequently visited nature’s marvel is not the Daman-e-Koh hills or the lush green Swat Valley, but a garden located near my house. The garden is on an empty plot, grown by the collective cooperation of the residents of our community. Its attractive beauty and incomparable magnificence draws me to it whenever I get a break from school. Let me narrate my first experience in this garden.

The entrance is enclosed by a large, brown gate. Any resident of my community can visit the garden without paying the ticket fee to the watchman sitting next to the gate. My first step inside mesmerised and enthralled me. The eye-catching display of trees and flowers, the soothing and scented fresh air, the bright colours scattered everywhere, drew me into further into the garden.

The first breath I took inside the garden refreshed my mind. It relieved and calmed me, I felt as if I had smelt a perfume. Infact, the amalgamation of the unique scent of each flower gave rise to a fragrance that overshadowed any manmade perfume. Had this air been bottled into a perfume, it would have been priced for hundreds of dollars.

Moving further allowed me to appreciate the natural beauty in the garden. The short and ever-green trees bordered the garden. Every tree was nicely trimmed to the same height as its neighbour’s, and equidistant from its fellow tree — all due to the admirable hard work of the gardener.

Focusing on the trees helped me identify the orange-coloured balls in the tree canopy, though they were concealed by the dark green leaves of the tree. Yes, these trees were orange trees. I had already noted this because the aura around them was enriched by the sweet and tangy scent of oranges.

Grouped together in bunches; brightly-coloured flowers were arranged in the middle of the garden. Each bunch consisted of flowers from distinctive specie. The natural beauty that these flowers presented forced the visitors to stop, appreciate and admire them. As I walked towards them, the concentration of odour increased and so did the humidity in the air. Every specie has a distinguishing arrangement of floral parts, but one thing was similar in all the flowers — their beauty was eye-catching.

After spending half an hour in the garden, I realised that the floor on which I stood was not a green mat, but lush green grass. Again it reminded me of the laudable skills of the gardener; he had grown and trimmed the grass so finely that it looked as if it was a soft and woolly green mat!

I wanted to spend more time in the garden but, I returned home because it was evening. Before going, I firmly decided that I would return to the garden whenever I was free again.

Published in Dawn, Young World, June 18th, 2022