Milena Velba For December 2009

Olives from across the ocean

Grandpa In 1985 John traveled to the Canary Islands after nearly 70 years of absence from his birthplace. It was formerly known by various sites and was reunited with several relatives of those who occasionally had news. When we returned to the Caribbean in some way, we re-connect with the world. The first meeting had occurred in 79, when several families arrived from New Jersey, filled with an unknown scent and contagious.

Since that time, all packages and shipments arriving from U.S. territory were announced with the smell. More to discover foreign objects, fabrics that unlike the laster they sold everywhere, not burn the skin, but gently conformed like a second skin, which was more attracted to the perfume that permeated the suitcases and then all rooms .

With the grandfather and his companion, a cousin of those who appear and then become lost in a foggy memory, also came unfamiliar equipment and fragrances from across the world. I remember a polaroid that quickly gained mystical powers, thanks to the miracle of the pictures show up shortly after pressing the shutter.

However, the extraordinary thing was some bags of olives that Grandpa brought in large quantities, perhaps willing to share a taste so attached to his life and so difficult to replicate in Cuba 80. For the family that we were born a decade earlier was completely unknown to us.

Olives, he thought, seemed the perfect reference to the Canary Islands. The flavor associated with the land, though he knew that the groves defined in some way to the southern coast of Europe, and that the islands were closer to Africa than the Mediterranean.

Still, every bite was a door that opened to a world of unknown flavors, which I was unable to identify a lack of references. I remember I ate a whole bag, with almost the same fascination with which I ate many years before the first Peter de chocolate.

amazed me everything. I ignorant of marketing and advertising, brand design seemed refreshing and the ability of manufacturers simply brilliant. Especially if they manage to turn a package of nylon, and contain olives in brine, appeared to be shockproof and perforations.

After that year there were over 85 meetings with the olive fruit. Long after the evidence was that there was a world beyond the borders of the island. Was forbidden for most, but who had dollars, could delude itself that it would close.

Only at that time there were so many product need to be also common in the rest of the planet, a jar of stuffed peppers at times seemed impossible. Still there on the shelf, mocking those who entered the store at full speed, hoping to capture all the soap and oil.

Weeks ago, during the weekly shopping at the supermarket, I stumbled upon one of those bags of 80 developers. One of them went to the shopping cart, but the expectation was not very big. Among huge green, black, stuffed with feta cheese, garlic, chili and so on, the variety of olives that have eaten me from staying with a particular flavor.

But as one is not vaccinated against surprises, incredible bag of memory brought me to the memory of discovery and the indescribable flavor also experience as a teenager.