Musc & Jasmin

"I have a strong attachment to jasmine that dates back to my childhood. In the morning, during summer vacations, I would accompany my grandmother who went to 'pick the flower,' an expression that referred to jasmine. These were terraced gardens where men were absent. The women picked, chatted, laughed, and seemed to enjoy being together while their children ran around. The youngest picked with bare arms. Their skin, golden from the sun's caress, seemed soft to me; drops of sweat beaded from their faces down to the V-neck of their white blouses, which revealed the roundness of their breasts when they bent over the flower-laden bushes. On the ground, the baskets filled up. I didn't dare look at them, or only fleetingly. The musk of their sweat and the narcotic floral scent of jasmine intertwined and disturbed me."
Jean-Claude Ellena