Morning of the Naranjas





The Moorish conquerors of Medieval Spain often described freshly picked "naranjas" as that of a cheek of a beautiful maiden.

Yesterday evening was palengke day. These small oranges caught my fancy, they come with stems and green leaves as if they were harvested minutes ago. An elderly lady came and asked the tindera: "Magkano itong dalanghita?

The old lady spoke with a vocabulary that seems to be dying. Dalanghita is the old term used in Tagalog, from Spanish "naranjita" or the diminutive of the word naranja (orange) which in turn was borrowed from Arabic نَارَنْج‎ (nāranj) and also related to Sanskrit नारङ्ग (nāraṅga).

Traces of a fallen tower that was Babel?

I thought of Seville's "Patio de Los Naranjos", what beauty what color of green with oranges. But the fruits I bought yesterday in the palengke were from China. Probably bombarded with pesticides and developed with GMO technology. Well, so much for citruses.

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