First it covered the embankments, then dotted the grain fields, and finally the many fiery red poppies appeared along the roads and in some places in the more weedy gardens.
When the crazy late spring winds blew through them, they would bend like some beautiful red butterfly, almost afraid to take wing and fly up into the sky.
It would have been a pity, because their beauty was needed here on earth. The sea of poppies glowed in the sunshine, and from time to time, more and more butterfly wings sprang to life from the small, tight, bean-bud-sized green buds.
One day, however, in the middle of the roadside embankment, a special little poppy opened its petals. But all of its petals turned snow-white! "The world has never seen anything like it!" the poppies around her cackled.
They looked at it curiously, trying to make friends with the unusual sight. At first they couldn't believe it was their relative, but then they saw that its stems, flowers, and buds were all like theirs. They accepted it, tolerated it, but they all looked at it with a little doubtful eyes, wondering what the reason for the great difference in its appearance was.
Even the little poppy immediately saw how different he was from his other companions. He felt the distrust that surrounded him, so he began to grieve, to mourn. Perhaps I was born with some kind of defect, some kind of flaw, he thought. I am certainly not worth as much as the others. No one takes any pleasure in me, because I am not a 'real' poppy.
Time was passing, when suddenly one of the cars that kept passing on the road stopped. A young woman got out of the car parked on the roadside, and holding a strange machine in her hand, carefully not to trample the flowers, she stepped into the middle of the pipe-stenger.
She noticed it from the car, immediately, among all the red, the one special snow-white poppy.
He wanted to capture it with his camera. Because he had already photographed pink, but he had never had the pleasure of seeing such a beautiful white. You are beautiful, he whispered to the little flower. You look like the princess of poppies! - she said aloud.
And the little poppy seemed to understand. Suddenly he had a warm, comforting feeling that he was the one who was getting the attention, that someone was looking at him, not hurting him, not angry with him, but smiling in admiration.
The young woman got back in her car and submitted the pictures she took with her to a nature photography competition, which she won with a photo of the poppy princess...
Since then, the wind has been whispering to the little poppy: be proud of yourself, because you are not inferior to your peers, but you are the most special spring flower on the embankment.
