The Purple Emperor Butterflies of Manseok Park by June Hyung Kim (13, Philippines)

Across my grandma’s house is Manseok Park, where, every morning, butterflies would circle the hedge bush that flanked the gardened paths. I would go there every other day to walk around the park reservoir and I would always hear the ducks quacking on the water surface. Often, I would see joggers along the pathway and office workers spending their lunchtime by the waterfront. Boxwood and bunchberry surround the outer ring of the path. Some daisies sprout out of the bushes, around which a lone butterfly circles.

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The shadows of the tree tower over the bush, with the Great Purple Emperor’s wings looking like purple pansy petals, dark purple with a black outline. It rests its feet on the leaves of the bush. Its six legs are thin, the back legs in a right angle, placing its feet on a single leaf. Its antenna is long and curved down, a little bulb attached to the tip of it. Butterflies wing their ways to this wet area every day to look for the flowers on the bushes, finding nectar wherever they are, using their ultraviolet vision. I remember the time when I first saw butterflies in this park, they flit from flower to flower, pollinating the plant in return for taking its blossom’s nectar. Their wings fluttered fast through the sharp branches of the bush and landed exactly on the white petals of the next daisy. I notice that butterflies don't make any noises except when flying. Butterflies communicate with each other by chemical cues. Only a few butterfly species make clicking noises.

Today, in the park, I see a young boy walking around the pathway with his mother. Both are wearing sweatshirts and joggers. When the mother started jogging, the boy started running as well. I have seen a lot of people just pass by these lovely organisms.

When I was young, I couldn’t tell the difference between moths and butterflies. Most people tell the difference by the colors of their wings. At the same time, butterflies fold their wings over their backs, while moths fold their wings in a way that hides its abdomen. In the distance, I see the whole view of the lake and the buildings outside of the park. Most are low-rise buildings with shops and restaurants on the first floor and homes on the second and third. Cars are parked alongside the sidewalk in front of the shops, busy-looking commuters walking by them. The setting October sun shoots bright orange light onto the outer walls of the buildings. The sky is clear and the dry, red leaves of the maple trees ride the wind. In a few weeks, the remaining flowers on the bushes will be gone for the winter. I learned that butterflies also hibernate. Most species of them stay longer as a larva or a pupa, but some Polygonia and Nymphalis go to long sleep in holes in dark and warm areas.

Butterflies live all over the world, but specific species live in a certain period of the year in a certain place. In Korea, we would often find the swallowtails which are called the sanhorang-nabi and the blue triangle or the cheongtti jebi-nabi. Butterflies symbolize pleasure and joy in Korean culture. In art, butterflies with flowers represent prosperity. I see butterflies every day at this park, all in different colors from vermilion to lavender. What I saw today was one of the purple ones, the bright shade glowing in the dark. Their wings are very thin, the patterns used for camouflage different on every one of them. My grandma told me that these beautiful creatures live for only a few weeks before they die. She also told me that the brimstone butterfly lives the longest, up to 13 months. Brimstones have big yellow green wings that look exactly like alder leaves that they lay their eggs. In second grade, our class had learned about the butterflies’ life and death cycle. 

We used to have a plant at the back of the classroom where we put a few butterfly eggs. The creatures begin their life cycle as small eggs that hatch into larvae. The caterpillars look like any other insect would, long with black and yellow stripes slicing its back in rows. The larvae later form chrysalises, the inactive stage when the pupae grow into adult butterflies. Like a young child wrapping himself around a comforter, a hard shell forms around the pupa. They hang from branches with only minimal movement. In the classroom, everyone waited for the butterflies to hatch, and after spending another quiet week in the cocoon, we came to school on Monday to find butterflies revealing their wings and flapping them to dry them on the spot. After reaching the adult state, the beautiful insects fly above flowers, flapping their perfect wings in and out. Then in two weeks, they would die, although we let them out the window of the classroom after hatching.

I went to the park the next day to find a dead butterfly on a high surface, its wings crumpled and ripped, all the moisture lost from it. Once in a while, wind would carry and shake the dead butterfly’s wings with it, but it looked nothing close to a living creature. The butterflies live in a quiet world while we go through our chaotic one. Their wings flap as they lift off the flower bud. Slowly, their beauty drifts into our lives every day, their quiet world flowing into humanity’s chaos. When we break the invisible wall between our lives and those of other living organisms, nature becomes beautiful.