(VOVworld) – Each season in Hanoi has its own attractions. For people living in Hanoi and those who have ever been in Hanoi, autumn is the best season of the year. Milk flower is praised as one of the symbols of Hanoi’s autumn. When autumn comes, we feel the cool breeze and smell fragrance of Hoa Sua or Milk Flowers.

Milk flower

Not as resplendent as peach blossom, flamboyant, or chrysanthemum, milk flower has a plain beauty and its attraction lies in its ardent sweet fragrance. Milk flowers blossom in the late autumn and early winter. The streets, where milk flower abound such as Quang Trung, Nguyen Du, Quan Thanh, Thuy Khue, and Thanh Nien, are carpeted with tiny white flowers. On windless nights, the ardent fragrance makes the autumn atmosphere more romantic and poetic.

Le Tung Duong lives in Thuy Khue says: “Milk followers remind me of the cold autumn breeze. We have pleasant evenings walking around the lake and indulge in the sweet fragrance of milk flowers. Despite climate change and the construction of high-rise buildings, my feeling of milk flowers in autumn will never change. The perfume recalls memories in me.”

Milk flower in Phan Dinh Phung street, Hanoi

For people who are living far away from Hanoi, milk flower perfume can make them reminisce about Hanoi. Nguyen Phan Hoang Anh is studying in South Korea: “The fragrance of milk flower is ardent, sometimes too strong. One blossoming tree can pervade its aroma throughout the street. I remember when I was a student. My friends and I rode bicycles at night to enjoy the quietness, the cold of autumn, and the perfume of milk flowers. I had a strange feeling of nervousness, elation, reminiscence, and sadness. I’ve been living far from Hanoi for 3 milk flowers seasons. I remember the familiar perfume, the feeling, and Hanoi.”

Milk flower tree is as high as the 2-storey building

Milk flower has been an endless inspiration for poets, song writers, and artists to compose ever-green works about Hanoi such as “Remember Hanoi’s autumn” by Trinh Cong Son, “My dear, Hanoi streets” by Phu Quang and Phan Vu, “Hanoi in the fall” by Huu Xuan, and “Quietness of Hanoi by night” by Phu Quang and Pham Thi Ngoc Lien. The most popular song is “Milk flower” by Hong Dang written in 1978.

Author Hong Dang said: “The song is about love for Hanoi and nature. It talks about my love, a person coming from the central region to Hanoi. I see Hanoi as my home and the milk flower is a symbol of love, elegance, and charm. Milk flower in my song is a symbol of love. The lyric goes “The milk flower’s sweetness fills the city every night. Maybe you’ve forgotten me ".