goodbye, my cactus fruit
santorini diaries > day ??
one day I went off the paved paths to the middle of nowhere, to where i’m sure no foreigners ever go - (and that’s where i met an old man in his bird shack) - and there, I saw an abundance of cactus plants, so i picked one cactus fruit off the plant to take home.
i think it left me with 20 needles in my hands and on my beach towel (i was planning to walk to the other side of the island, and sit on it) and so, once i got home, i had to pluck them out with a tweezer.
but at least i was successful - i had my cactus fruit.
i put it on my kitchen counter, and i looked at it everyday. i put it outside on the patio table, and admired its colors, its shapes. its perfectly imperfect patterns where the needles grow.
i picked it up and ran my fingers over it - the raised bumps was strange feeling on a fruit. occasionally, it still stung me. like a cat.
*
one day i sat in the sun and drew it. there was a glare on my screen and i could barely see. i wanted to open it, then animate it opening up, like these pomegraneates i ate in naxos.
but the sun was moving fast and i was too slow. and now, some week or two later - there has been a series of rainy days. too cold to sit outside. my cactus plant is shriveled up, and i’m slowly accepting that my time on this island is coming to an end.
maybe the real reason i never had the heart to open it - is because i got attached to its beauty. i was too attached to eat it.
now i must say goodbye.
goodbye, my cactus plant.
see you in your next reincarnation, on another island.
next time, i will eat you in your prime.
go to santorini
