A symbol of abundance, fairy-tale luxury and hope. But at the same time the fragility of life and short-term beauty, which in the silk flowers hide the treasure.

With its shiny colors, which are showing through the snow, it is where it grows, a symbol of spring and awakened life. The golden yellow flowers of spring saffron with their color mean light, enlightenment, love and wealth.

In any case, it should not be confused with the real saffron that blooms in the autumn and was a symbol of wealth. In China and India, it was used for coloring silk, and in the Middle East, it was appreciated as spice and aphrodisiac.

The Slovenian word saffron originates from the Arabic "zafran", which means yellow. Even the English name has just been adopted (saffron), the same applies to many other European, African and Asian languages, which reveals how important this raw material was and how closely the then world was.

Today, like thousands of years ago, the work (collecting) is done manually. For a kilogram of this spice, it should be harvested from 150,000 to 200,000 flowers! Saffron is definitely rightly expensive as a saffron.

I gathered some of the information from the book from Andrej Seliskar and Tone Wraber, and photos for @juliank's #macrophotography contest I made myself with my Samsung A5.