Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Cherries For Me

This is another little piece of evidence that in a past life, I was an artist of sensuality in Japan.

Although I eat more apples than any other fruit, I have always preferred cherries, whether blossom, fruit, or wood.   During hours of searching to find the right photo to illustrate "My Apple Orchard Goddess", that preference became obvious.   My favorite illustration shows a cherry orchard in Japan.   Panning up and down gives me the feeling of being in the orchard, peeking from behind a branch of blossoms, trying to spy the goddess in the mist among the trees.

My literary inspiration specifies apples and Western symbols, but my inner landscape specifies cherries and Japan.   So far this lifetime has been spent in midwestern America, where I befriended an old apple tree in my childhood backyard.   When I moved on to other places, they just didn't feel like home until an apple tree was rooted in the ground.

My mind's eye sees the Apple Orchard Goddess playing hide and seek in the warm, wet, early summer drizzle among fuzzy new green leaves and pretty five-petal blossoms, and later, a round, firm fruit to fill your hand.   Comfortable, familiar images give the Apple Orchard Goddess the playfulness of the goddess-next-door ~ someone to laugh and giggle with, to push on a rope swing, to chase to the pond and splash and tease.

But cherry blossoms in Japan give a different sense ~ more refined, subtle, exotic.

You hold a cherry between your thumb and finger, like a gem.   Cherries are softer, sweeter, and juicier than apples.   In North America, cherry trees are rarer and more tender than apple trees, but cherries love the climate of Japan.   Cherry juice is red as blood.   There are more symbols ... but maybe that says enough about cherry blossoms illustrating my apple orchard.

Born and bred in the midwest, I might seem as wholesome and familiar as a sweet, crisp apple.   But as the everlasting native of my earthly temple, I'm like nothing you've ever known ~~ at least, that's what everyone says who gets to know me beyond hello.

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space for potential illustration (permission pending) ~ see it now
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Original source of apple orchard illustration by Emily Grandin

2 comments:

Eagle said...

When I was a kid I befriended a dog instead of a tree (my neighbour's dog), and I have to say that is cool.It's nice to have nonhuman friends.I used to play a lot with "him".

Cheeries are good but strawberries are better, they are not only sweet but also acid but cheerie blossom is relaxing

I was told that if I were a fruit I would be an orange because I am strong and stocky, I guess I would describe my ideal partner as a berry(raspberry, cranberry, blue berry...) because they are sweet,little, providing(they provide food to many animals)and intense.

Anne Jolene said...

Orange blossoms smell heavenly ~ mmmmmm ~ their oil (neroli) has a reputation as an aphrodisiac.

Picturing people as fruits has me cooling off in my imagination with yummy fruit salads. Oranges and berries sound GREAT together!