The South

Fallen love never dies

The river of time

I painted this after the ginkgo tree outside my studio turned gold. Seeing this transition always makes me feel a little homesick. I still remember my first-grade teacher pointing at a ginkgo tree outside our classroom, telling us that, native to China, it is one of the oldest living species in the world and has been around since the dinosaurs. That memory has always stuck with me.

  
Every time I encounter ginkgo trees in a new city, I wonder about their journey—how they migrated across landscapes and cultures. I started researching their history, tracing their movement through time. It fascinates me how nature—something as simple as a tree—can take on new meanings in different cultural and environmental contexts, evolving its symbolism as it adapts.

The ginkgo's tale

The body and mind are time; grass and trees are time too.

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Zhongkai Li

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