Pink Hibiscus

This is the hibiscus at its softest — pink petals catching the first hour of light, edges still translucent from the night's dew. The single-day bloom means the flower you see in a photograph is one that no longer exists anywhere else.

Hibiscus has practical life in the islands too. The leaves and blossoms of some varieties were used in traditional Hawaiian remedies as a gentle tonic, and the dried flowers still steep into a tart, ruby-colored tea.

There is a reason it turns up in so many photographs. It is the flower that says you are somewhere warm, somewhere unhurried, somewhere worth coming back to.