A Multicolored World

Twenty years ago, when there were only one or two flights operating out of the island, and the only local produce of millet and rape seed was transported by wooden boats— When sea routes were cut off by storm, even a half-rotten apple that had moldered for days among piles of luggage was treated like a boon. (See related article on page C7.)

Inhabitants say that the island is like a paradise compared to those days. Stale rice long bled dry of its stickiness is now a thing of the past, as is the impoverished lifestyle that nearly prohibited people from venturing onto the mainland. Since being designated as a “Free International City,” it’s even been suggested that English be used as the official language on the island. Things have indeed changed on Jeju Island.

Nonetheless, the island’s spring scenery is not all that different from what it used to be. The brassica (or rape flower) blossoms—yellow with just a hint of green—still fill a broad field hedged in with the porous rocks indigenous to Jeju. The sunset still colors the skies over the intense blue sea in deep scarlet shades. And high-intensity boat lights still paint a fiery tapestry over the horizons.

Among these, the sprawling fields of rape flower blossoms are a common and symbolic sight on Jeju Island. During the Jeju Rape Flower Festival (April 17~18), yellow blossoms covered the hills and meadows around the island in blankets of vibrant color. Near Jeong-seok Museum of Aviation, these flowers adorned the fields on either side of the road for a full 10-minute stretch at 60km/h.

As I gaze at a field of rape flowers, I realize: yellow is the color of the island itself. On land, it is all but impossible to see such a spectacular festival of colors as the one that stretches before me as sunlight hits an endless expanse of provocative yellow. I’ve seen a few places where rape flowers have been planted in arrangements aimed at tourists, but the sentiment is quite different. Rape flowers are properly viewed only against the sapphire sky and sea of Jeju, and against the volcanic rocks that punctuate the landscape.

Jeju is a colorful island, characterized by five distinctive colors. The massive forest of cedars at Jeol-mool Natural Forest Park is so dense and deeply shaded that, if one were to wring one’s shirt while in it, green dye might drip down from the folds. And the sea—the unimaginable kaleidoscope of blue that encircles the island—cannot be removed from sight unless you shut your eyes tight. Even as a journalist who writes for a living, I come up hard against the limits of verbal expression before its azure waters.

One might be able to watch the sun drop down into the sea even on land—but what about the twilight colors, where the fiery clouds in the west paint a striking contrast against the cobalt sky?

The colors of Jeju do not slumber even in the night. On the contrary, they become even more alive, surpassing all in resplendence and magnificence. The white night fires over the sea lit by fishing boats—that is a truly rare and precious sight.

The fluorescent hues of the hairtail’s scales, the crimson-orange of the red ginseng, the bright orange of mandarins, the green fields of tea leaves, the soft white of the clouds… Even foods boast their brilliant colors here.

This pristine island of Jeju, where nature’s colors are preserved in all their glory... Perhaps because of this immaculate beauty, photographs taken here are never quite the same as those taken anywhere else. The clear air allows all of Jeju’s colors to be transposed transparently onto the picture. When visiting Jeju, one should pay particular attention to its colors. The naturalness of nature comes from these very colors. After all, a polluted and corrupted nature could never display its proper hues.

Seung-Ha Cho summer@donga.com