Cherished Spaces

Dear Reader,

Last weekend, Wai Han and Mr Fong spent their weekend repotting and caring for our plant colleagues, and on Monday I opened the back door and enjoyed my lunch in the cherished space.
 
I am aware that I write about gardening and plants a lot—too much, really, for someone with black thumbs—but here I am again, writing about gardening. Or, more accurately, writing about craft by way of gardening. Seed, germinate, trim: the metaphorical extension of gardening language to the acts of writing and editing requires so little mental effort that I sometimes forget that they are metaphors at all.
 
After lunch, I crossed the threshold from sun-drenched to fluorescent-lit and was momentarily blinded by sunspots. There is often a period of adjustment with change.
 
When I could see again I saw our shelves steadfast and tidy as always. The books reflected different wavelengths of light that had been carefully selected in production. The air purifier worked in silence. I settled back into the rhythm of work. In the next month, the monsoon willing, our work will come to fruition. Why Palestine?: Reflections From Singapore by Walid Jumblatt Abdullah will be launched at Common Ground on 7 April, and Hai Fan’s Delicious Hunger (translated by Jeremy Tiang), at Book Bar on 26 April. Together, these works will seed fresh conversations about the narratives that shape lives. Come watch it germinate. 

Zining

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