Ha Nhat Tien: "After 15 years in Saigon, Saigon has become my home."

For the past fifteen years, I've never loved Saigon as deeply as I do now. Saigon always has its own peaceful moments, even amidst the ever-changing world outside.

For a long time now, I've abandoned the habit of gazing at Saigon from a wide perspective. I bend down and admire Saigon in its simple, familiar corners.

Someone asked me why I love Saigon. With its noisy, chaotic streets, rampant pollution, constant tree cutting and road digging, and filthy canals… I could say I'm a devout follower of this vast city. But after 15 years in this glamorous city, I can confidently say that my love for it is difficult to express in words; only when you live and work here do you truly understand how deep it is.

Saigon – a city unlike any other in the country, a chaotic mix of everything under the sun, noisy, bustling, polluted, dilapidated, and messy… yet it still evokes fond memories in anyone who visits.

Everyone says "Saigon is the land of Buddha," "Saigon is glamorous," "Saigon - the Pearl of the Far East," but for me, Saigon is simply Saigon. Saigon is most beautiful, most peaceful, most vibrant, and most poetic when it is simply Saigon.

My cousin back home often asks me, "Brother, why do you love Saigon so much? I came here for just one day and now I want to go back home immediately."

"You have to live here, wander through every nook and cranny, get dumped by your girlfriend here, be penniless here, sit for hours in the park watching the crowds outside, eat out without money, ride on the back of a motorbike, walk for kilometers in the rain, move house two or three times... and many other things, only then will you see Saigon as a place worth living in."

But once you've lived in a place, affection begins to blossom.

Life in Saigon has taught me invaluable lessons. It taught me to recognize the real gamblers. It taught me to recognize true chivalry and loyalty.

Saigon these days has another quarantine border springing up. But to me, these are borders of affection. Saigon, in this great calamity, is imbued with genuine kindness. Each day, the barriers of fear and isolation in my heart are dispelled as the compassion of the people of Saigon flows freely through every nook and cranny. The sound of ambulances blends with the sounds of sharing in the otherwise quiet Saigon.

I'm not someone who easily loses faith. And I certainly don't lose faith while I'm in Saigon. The people of Saigon taught me that faith has power.

The happiness in Saigon lies in the awareness of the difficulties, hardships, and unhealed suffering. In times of adversity, we become even more open-hearted, kinder, and more tolerant of one another. I always see Saigon as a place where countless acts of kindness sprout and flourish, without needing a rain shower.

Saigon's land is inherently kind and generous. No matter how much water, water, or dirt and mess you throw at it, Saigon's land will always smile and willingly embrace it all. And from this land, trees always grow. They grow green.

Saigon is sick, so Saigon is taking a break for a while. Saigon's illness is an event that helps us reflect on everything here. The illness reveals the misery that Saigon is suffering. When it recovers, we will truly appreciate and cherish Saigon.

Saigon will be reborn.

I want to write about my Saigon, and even if I wrote about it a million times, it would never be enough. Because Saigon has become a part of my destiny as a person.

As I write this, I still harbor doubts about the unpredictable changes that Saigon – my resilient homeland – will undergo in the days to come.

But every morning when I wake up, hear the birds bickering with the cats in the apartment building, open the window to see the tree sprouting new leaves, and hear the noodle vendor on the second floor still singing sweetly, I believe that one day soon Ben Thanh Market will be bustling again, Thanh Mai's noodle shop will be crowded again, the grilled pork noodle shop under the tamarind tree on Nguyen Trung Truc Street will be fragrant again, and the pigeons will once again perch on the roof of the city cathedral.

We offer Saigon moments of peaceful tranquility, awaiting the day when Saigon will be beautifully reborn.

Ha Nhat Tien