A POEM A DAY - 'El GARROFER'


In late August the village streets used to smell of the sweet, earthy carob, dried, curled black seed pods, picked and sacked, the fruit of the 'Garrofer'. Carob has been known as 'St John's bread' as it was said to have sustained St John. It is also the root of the word 'carat' as it was used as a measure for weight of gold and gemstones. The countryside around the village is dotted with old carob trees, no longer valuable as animal feed, the seeds fall to the ground and the trees are no longer pruned and are growing wild. The trunks spread wide, branches touch the ground and self seed and the oldest trees seem locked in the landscape. In this example of new leaf and old root, the roots are almost indistinguishable from the rocks out of which the tree grows. 





© 2019 Jacqueline Knight Cotterill.  All rights reserved. 

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