Deep Roots, Strong Tree.
(Image entry, written portion to explain)
Verdantia, known as the City of Infinite Blooms is located less than an hour walk inland from the Capital, Port Royale. Verdantia is one of the great Ironwood Cities, built in the great trees but also beneath their boughs, a mix of Kypiq and Neran architecture. Verdantia is renowned for producing fine fabrics (namely silk), dyes and clothing (most notably that of privateers). Outside the great forest-city, fields of many varieties stretch seemingly forever outward in a tapestry of riotous colors and patterns.
Verdantia hosts the Festival of Colors once but every 50 years. During this prestigious event fabric of all kinds and colors is draped over branches, walls and most every other surface not already covered in living, ever-changing kaleidoscope-mosaics of flowers. Merchants from across the continent (and rumored farther) set up stalls and booths hawking their wares exotic, magnificent, mundane and practical.
The many gardens of the city are in their prime, offering quiet peace and privacy during the chaotic cacophony of sound and sights. Muting Grass and Pillow Moss line the paths and alcoves, made perfect for napping by the fuzzy Blanket Hosta leaves, among brilliant flowers, stooped shade trees and singing streams ever dappled in sunlight, starlight or moonlight. Songbirds warble peaceable melodies lulling those in need of rest into dreamscapes most vivid, while the Sentinel Shrubs keep watch and the Viper Vines keep all safe.
At the beginning of each new festival day, newly arrived visitors participate in the Dye Dash. Participants are given a plain white set of clothes and at the colorful blush of dawn they run through the city. Citizens and those who've arrived prior throw handfuls of powdered dye at the runners as they pass them along the road, underneath the living-root sky-bridges and from the many balconies. The run ends at the river where participants jump into the clear, cool, sweet water, setting the dye they've been covered in into the fabric. This brightly colored garment, if they so choose, becomes their festival attire for the remainder of the event as well as a keepsake souvenir.
The festival concludes with the judging of flora gathered from far and wide and near and narrow. This aids Verdantia in its mission to categorize, record and cultivate all flora and is the main focus of the Festival of Colors. Some tend to the flora they find in the wild for decades, learning and recording all they can about it until the time draws near for the festival, then they transplant it, transport it and submit it to the Judging of Flora.
Without further adieu, I present Verdantia during the Festival of Colors!
Deep Roots, Strong Tree.