What an unusual depiction of a city, here praised by the disciple Andrew in the desert-bright novel about the last days of Jesus, by the author of Zorba the Greek, Kazantzakis. I wonder if anyone now would think of Jericho in such terms these days?
And those resilient roses that revive with a dip in water! Â Imagine a city planner saying, ‘Right, KPI Miraculous Roses, check; KPI Sweetest Dates, hmm, need to work on that.’
“Jericho,” Andrew shouted happily. “They have the sweetest dates in the whole world here, and the most miraculous roses: if they wither, all you do is dip them in water and they revive.”
See also Pliny’s reference to darling dates sent by a friend.
Source: Nikos Kazantzakis, The Last Temptation, trans. P.A. Bien (London: Faber and Faber, 1983), p. 241
Photo credit: Jamie Street at unsplash.com
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