A rose in the river

There are occasional bunches of roses tied to shelters or to the river bank here. Someone loved must have been lost.

Occasionally I see them, not in wilted bunches but singly, floating downstream.

They are powerful symbols of love. They have probably been flown here, only to float down the river to the sea.

There are entire airport terminals in Nairobi dedicated to the cut flower trade. 100,000 Kenyans work in cut flowers and support 2,000,000 people indirectly.

It’s an enormous, global, multi-billion dollar industry for the most personal and intimate of moments. I’m left contemplating global trade and personal loss as it drifts gently away downstream and finally out of sight.