Goldfish tree

Goldfish tree

  ​One day, as my child got off the school bus, she carefully  hold a small cup and got off. It was filled with soil. She told that had planted cones inside her cup at the school. She said these cones would later sprout and grow so that the corn would open up. Maybe she was taught about seeds and plants in school. Then she quietly spoke to me. Here, she secretly planted a goldfish snack together.

​In the United States, among the snacks children eat at snack time or lunchtime in the school, Goldfish is a famous snack. It is a very small and cute goldfish-shaped snack common and well-known in Americans like an apple pie. It comes in various flavors such as cheese, bezel, and rainbow and is not sweet at all, but children like it, so it is well known as a healthy snack that mothers can safely feed their children. Of course, our kids love Goldfish too. 

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Pepperidge Farm Goldfish Cheddar Crackers, Snack Packs, 45 Oz

 If the child planted a goldfish snack in the soil, she said later it would become a goldfish tree, and she would be able to pick it up and eat it without  mother going to mart to buy it.
The goldfish snack tree will already be open in the child's mind.
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I tried to work with Photoshop while thinking of the child's imagination.

Goldfish tree, 2021, Myungja Anna Koh

 Joseph Beuys said that every child in the world is an artist. I agree with his opinion. He was right. Children's imagination is unlimited, very creative, and gives us bright and happy energy. But I had to explain the differences between seeds and snacks for educational reasons, why goldfish snacks couldn't be a tree. After she had listened to it, she answered me. "It may not become a tree, but the Goldfish Snack will be a good nutrition for the corn."

  ​After talking with the child, I wondered if there were actually goldfish trees, so I searched the Internet. There were no trees, but there was a plant called Goldfish plant.

Goldfish plant (Columnea) is a genus of ca. 200 species of epiphytic herbs and shrubs in the flowering plant family Gesneriaceae, native to tropical America and the Caribbean. The tubular or oddly shaped flowers are usually large and brightly colored – typically red, yellow, or orange – sometimes resembling a fish in shape. A common name is flying goldfish plants (see the related Nematanthus) due to the unusual flower shape. (by Wikipedia)

  ​The creative ideas of the children helped me to learn the goldfish plant and to work on the related drawings. And in the future, I really hope that trees like this will open and give hope to people suffering from hunger anywhere in the world