After having a robust cup of double-shot espresso in a café located in the trendy East Village district near the Iowa State Capitol, I unhurriedly drove toward the Des Moines Botanical Center with my slow mind tagged along like a sleepy monitor lizard with no nametag. The laid-back street scenes of Des Moines, accompanied by Tomaso Albinoni’s Adagio in G minor for Strings and Organ in my car’s stereo system, shadowed me like Edward Hopper’s paintings. Phew. I must look like a semi-unhappy ghost if greenish aliens happened to observe me far away from Mars with their super-telescope.

The Botanical Center greeted my semi-unhappiness with a tropical smile, cheerfully tossing scads of vivid natural colors to me as if we were participating in Songkran Festival in Thailand. The man-made indoor creek was graced with koi fishes' elegant movements and there was this zen-looking little turtle motionlessly floating in the pond surrounded by beautiful tropical plants.  I positioned my field-recorder at the turtle, transfixed, anticipating to capture this little turtle's wise-words when awakening from a long meditation about sun, flowers, and lovely spring time.

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The Des Moines Botanical Center, located on east bank of the Des Moines River, features a 150’ geodesic dome filled with tropical and sub-tropical plants, koi, birds, and turtles. The center, completed in 1979, is currently managed by the Des Moines Water Works.