Cereus III

Cereus III
Artist Marcia Chaves
Oil,  12x 16”
Cereus 
“The Lady of the Night”
For over 50 years our family has reluctantly nurtured the cereus cactus, tolerating its unsightly leather like leaves and gangling stems, known as “the big ugly” by my daughter. But every fall, the buds of its blooms begin to appear, and we look forward to the huge, fragrant flowers that delight for only one evening. A generational plant, a kind neighbor gave a single leaf to my mother in law as a welcoming gesture upon the family’s arrival in Virginia after migrating from Cuba in the ‘50’s. Over the years, the appearance of a bloom brought us together to witness its passing beauty, vanishing at dawn leaving only the wilted remnants of waxy petals.