Tama's tulips

Big Tama, a Samoan man in his 40s, a former rugby player turned florist: 6 foot 5, huge and broad, warm smile, black hair tied in a top bun, full traditional Samoan tatau covering one arm from shoulder to wrist, wearing a white T-shirt, dark jeans, brown work boots and a sage-green canvas florist's apron with secateurs in the pocket. Lying on his back in a field of tulips waving up at the camera, from his smile out to the valley, the coast, then the whole Earth, where the flowers have spread across a continent.