Sunlight of Sen village

This May we returned to visit Uncle Ho's hometown in Sen village. That place seems to be the common hometown of every Vietnamese person.

There is a coincidence that the lotus blooms and May is Uncle Ho's birthday. The lotus is the quintessence of creation, and Uncle Ho "is the lotus flower that radiates the fragrance of life" (Thuan Yen). Returning to Uncle Ho's hometown in May, we suddenly realize that the scent of sunlight comes from the lotus, from the flowers and fruits of the garden, from the fragrant hearts of people. That is a source of pure, abundant, fresh, radiant, and transparent yang energy that filters through dust, wind, and dew to reflect its halo and spread its light. Only the lotus has the "lotus heart", the word "heart" in Buddhism is the seed of human love, of compassion and love.

Returning to Sen village in May, we revisited Uncle Ho's childhood house. Before our eyes appeared a thatched roof and bamboo walls, familiar and simple daily living items like many other rural houses that have been stained by time. The small garden in front of Uncle Ho's house had very simple flowers, familiar to Vietnamese farmers such as sweet potato flowers and peanut flowers. Looking at those images, we understood why Uncle Ho, as President, still lived in a windy stilt house in the middle of a vast garden of colorful flowers; understood why Uncle Ho took care of the star apple tree given by the people of the South with special affection; understood why he had a very humane strategic vision, launching the "Tree Planting Festival" with the purpose: "For the benefit of ten years, we must plant trees, for the benefit of a hundred years, we must cultivate people". That person, that noble personality was born, nurtured, and grew up in the sunshine of Sen village, the scent of life, the scent of careful selection and warmth, the scent of the green tree of life, the scent of warm human love.

Returning to Sen village, we meet here the voices of hundreds of hometowns, re-encountering the emotions of many ages, not only in the hearts of Vietnamese people but also international friends. Returning to the sunshine of Sen village, our hearts seem to open up more, become more intimate, more sympathetic and closer together because we share a sacred affection for the father of the nation: "He had no children but had millions of children/ Our people called him Uncle/ His whole life belonged to the country" (Nguyen Dinh Thi).

Returning to Sen village, everyone seems to encounter here the image of their own homeland, rustic to simple, ordinary to familiar. We also seem to see somewhere the image of Uncle Ho walking between "Mother's Tru village and Father's Sen village" and then many nostalgic emotions suddenly surge, with so much respect, so much love to find memories of the origin. The lotus scent in May is the scent of Uncle Ho's morality, Uncle Ho's style and Uncle Ho's ideology: "A life of purity, without gold and silver/Fragile cloth shirt, a thousand-foot soul/ Better than bronze statues exposed on worn paths" (To Huu). And Uncle Ho's name, his moral example and style are like a truly beautiful Vietnamese folk song: "The most beautiful lotus flower in Thap Muoi/ The most beautiful Vietnam has Uncle Ho's name" (Bao Dinh Giang).

Essay by HA HUY