Dear Diane and Shaded Viewers,
In this exciting new chapter of A Shaded View on Perfume Fiction, Memory of Scent blogger Christos and photographer Ana Maria Rusu explored the experience of scent not only through the written word, but imagery as well. See the result of their collaboration below.
Diptyque Philosykos by Olivia Giacobetti
Notes: Fig, fig leaf, green notes, woods, coconut milk, white cedarwood
Fig tree is a tree of death. It stands in winter barren with heavy branches that swirl in the air and grasp as far as they can. They look like petrified snakes, robust but frozen. They spend the whole winter looking dead.
Fig tree is a tree of promise. Come spring, elaborate leaves start budding from the ashen branches and soon a huge vibrant green canopy hides the death that used to be.
Fig tree is a tree of pleasure. Come summer fragrant pouches start growing and becoming heavier at the tip of each branch. They hold the promise of sweetness.
Fig tree is a tree of pudicity. Modest looking fruits hide inside them the most exuberant red flesh, decadently sweet and fragrant. The fig tree is the third tree named in the Hebrew Bible, after the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge. Its leaves were used to cover the newly discovered nudity of Adam and Eve.
Philosykos is a perfume of promise. It captures the promise of new life lurking under stones and dark crevices. It is cool like winter but in this barren coolness green new life promises the arrival of spring. The tiny buds of early leaves make it clear that soon everything will be buzzing crackling with new life, stretching its green wings to the sun, turning heat into life. Light into flesh.
Philosykos is a perfume that captures all that is pure and clean in nature. Fig trees in their natural habitat do not become fragrant until deep in summer where scorching heat, dry dust and screaming cicadas cannot be separated from the scent of fig leaves. Philosykos takes all that away. Modest in its approach of ingredients it remains simple and elegant. It smells of fig leaves infused with morning dew drops and sea breeze. Its impression of the fig tree is an abstract one: a fig tree that stands alone in an empty room made of massive marble stones. It seems like its natural environment has been removed by the perfumer to allow the simplicity of the aroma to shine.
Fig tree is a tree of legends. Greek rural legends say that you are never supposed to sleep under the thick shadow of a fig tree. As much as it seems cool and friendly in mid summer day, the mysterious fumes of fig leaves can cause hallucinations and nightmares. The white milk that bleeds from its wounds will attract snakes.
Philosykos makes all this sound like silly superstition. Philosykos is like the cool breeze that ruffles the fig leaves early in the morning, before the heat of the sun makes all these superstitions believable.
Images by Ana Maria Rusu http://amrimages.com/
Text by Christos http://memoryofscent.wordpress.com/
Later,
Carla
