The Monarch Butterfly in My Yard

akukamaruzzaman(77)

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Fascinating Insects

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353

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English

It was only a month ago that the weeds in my yard were cleaned, but now they have grown back. I used to argue with my wife about it, she really couldn't see the weeds littering our yard and she wanted to call back a hired worker to clean it up.

I told her, not now, precisely because of the weeds, our yard looks like there is life, beautiful insects can come at any time. "You!" she said with wide eyes, "ever since you were active on the Hive Blog, you were always busy with insects, the weeds that littered the yard look beautiful to your eyes!" I can only grin at her taunts.

But my reason is proof, that with weeds in the yard, various types of insects always come and perch there. Like today, I saw a beautiful monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) sucking the flower nectar of weed plants. I smiled and whispered to it, "do you know? I just won a fight to defend the place you are on."

Indonesia

Baru sebulan yang lalu tanaman gulma di halaman rumahku dibersihkan, tapi kini mereka sudah tumbuh kembali. Saya sering berdebat dengan istri tentangnya, dia sangat tidak bisa melihat gulma mengotori halaman rumah kami dan dia berkeinginan memanggil kembali seorang pekerja upahan untuk membersihkannya.

Saya mengatakan kepadanya, jangan sekarang, justru dengan adanya gulma, halaman rumah kami tampak ada kehidupan, serangga-serangga cantik bisa datang kapan saja. "Kamu!" katanya dengan mata terbelalak, "sejak kamu aktif di Hive Blog, kamu selalu saja disibukkan dengan serangga, tanaman gulma yang mengotori halaman rumah saja terlihat indah di matamu!" Saya hanya bisa nyengir mendengar ejekannya.

Tapi alasan saya menjadi bukti, bahwa dengan adanya tanaman gulma di halaman rumah, berbagai jenis serangga selalu datang dan hinggap di sana. Seperti hari ini, saya melihat seekor kupu-kupu raja (Danaus plexippus) cantik sedang menyedot nektar bunga tanaman gulma. Saya tersenyum dan berbisik kepadanya, "apakah kamu tahu? saya baru saja memenangkan sebuah pertarungan untuk mempertahankan tempat yang kamu hinggapi."