Al-Karma is a region bordering Mount Lebanon on
the north, just after Batroun. Sure enough, as soon
as the name Koura comes up, one immediately thinks
of olives, of oil and of olive trees as though the
name were a synonym for the olive and everything
connected.
Koura is a district which stretches along the coast
from Batroun to Tripoli and covers a plateau reaching
400m in height. The climate is ideal for the cultivation
of olives, as is the soil. The olive tree, so typically
Mediterranean, is generous, strong and above all
graceful with a trunk and branches on no two trees
alike. They are giant arms upholding the vault of
heaven, the arms of an anchorite calling on God,
the arms of virgins, swaying like dancing ballerinas,
with all writing to be read. Here is the alphabet,
the very first, the Phoenician, from which the Greek,
Syriac and Latin letters were derived.
The olive tree is a mother who nurtures her fruit,
rich in its flesh and its juice, the oil used in
sanctuaries, in homes, in workshops. Who has not
known the oil of the olive, in soaps and in creams
and in balms of which it forms the base?
I have tasted olives and their oil everywhere around
the Mediterranean, and found that the produce of
Lebanon is the tastiest, the richest, the smoothest,
this product of Lebanon favored by a climate like
no other, gift of God to the world. The olive tree
is a subject treated by every artist, painter and
poet, with its leaves and branches symbolizing peace.
It is a tree held sacred since remotest antiquity,
above all by the Greeks, for whom cutting down such
a tree was an offense to be punished.
Joseph Matar - Translated from
the French by Kenneth Mortimer
- Amioun Olive Trees: >> View
Movie << (2007-09-01)
