My beautiful coral vine

Coral vine/ Honolulu creeper/ Mexican creeper 

Whenever I see this plant I will tear up although the event happened more than 50 years ago!

"WHO put this in the vase?  It is an ugly wild plant.  Throw it away!"  Then I meekly went in front  to the Teacher's table and took out the flowers from the vase, while being very self-conscious that 30 pairs of eyes of my classmates were looking at me, with some sneering away, or so I imagined.  The next day I was so ashamed to come to school that I pretended to be sick.  

The class teacher made it a rule that every week someone in the class would have to bring some flowers for the Teacher's table.  My classmates used to bring  bunches of roses, orchids, daisies, chrysanthemums, with some even bringing professionally arranged bouquets of flowers.  When it came to my turn I did not even tell my mother because I knew she could not afford to buy flowers for me to bring to school.  So the smart little girl in me decided to cut a bunch of coral vine from the bushes that were growing wild at  the roadside on my way to school. 

I wonder if the Teacher had ever realized that what she did was very wrong? Down the memory lane this is something that I have not forgotten.