healingwords: poetry for the soul

The terraces around the village have historically been planted with olive trees,  almonds, grape vines and 'garrofers'. In recent times orange and lemon trees have replaced many of these dry zone crops, despite the need for watering in this drought affected area. In my thirty years here I have seen the loss of the carob as a comercial crop. I can remember the hessian sacks full of crisp, black pods in every village garage and the sweet smell permeating the village in Autumn. The carob used to be sold as pig food but now it is now longer commercially viable the seeds litter the ground and the trees grow wild. They have a very particular gnarly bark and the trunks often hollow out as new branches loop down to the ground and perpetuate the tree. 

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.