We are as tiny as a grain of millet in the vast sea.
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粟 is millet, one of China's oldest staple grains, often standing for grain in general (as in 'paying grain tax'). The famous image 沧海一粟 — 'a single grain in the vast ocean' — means something utterly insignificant.
The grain radical at the bottom, a pictograph of scattered grains. It anchors the meaning firmly in cereal crops — millet here. It groups 粟 with 粮, 粒, and 粥.
The top element, here a stylized picture of grain heads hanging heavy on the stalk, not the 'west' meaning. Combined with the rice radical below, it pictures a cereal plant laden with seed.
