Oh Goddess, in worshipping you, we conserve nature
When the Goddess Durga comes down to earth
To fill with prosperity our home and hearth.
We worship her with flowers and leaves.
Celebrating new hope and igniting our beliefs.
With different varieties of flowers she is adorned
So these flowers are well looked after and grown.
Garlands of Hibiscus and marigold, her favourite flowers
We worship the Goddess with floral showers.
At the start of the Durga Puja the Goddess in invoked in a Bilva tree
Every part of it is medicinal, a tree as useful as can be.
So in worshipping the Bilva or Bael tree we conserve it.
Protecting the species becomes a priority.
The banana plant is wrapped in a sari to make the ‘Kola Bau’
Again through this ritual caring for the useful plant becomes a vow.
‘Navapatrika’ is bundling nine types of plants
Representing the nine forms of the Goddess Durga.
During Navaratri, worshipping these plants is an important feature
So oh Goddess Durga! In worshipping you we conserve nature.
The Shore Sentinels
The trees line the shores in silence.
They grow in soil where there is no oxygen.
The breathing roots help them out
To absorb oxygen out of the ground they sprout.
The trees line the shores in silence.
Their roots hold on in spite of the moving tides.
These shore magicians break the force of winds
And weaken the power of waves during storms grim.
The trees line the shore in silence.
The mangrove trees are true shore sentinels.
They protect land from the fury of the sea.
So conserving mangroves a must should be.
Paramita Mukherjee Mullick
Paramita Mukherjee Mullick is a poet living in Mumbai, India. She has published eleven books and her poems have been translated into 45 languages. She promotes peace, multilingual, global and indigenous poetry. She is the President of the Mumbai Chapter of the Intercultural Poetry and Performance Library (IPPL).