Ichigo (Strawberry) – Tanka/Haibun – July 24, 2015

Louis Gurlitt, Alban Hills (1850)

sweet caresses
laying in Nemi’s woods
our basket full
of tiny strawberries
and love’s perfection

© G.s.k. ‘15

I lived in the “Alban Hills” for several years after returning from Africa in 1980.  It’s a series of small hill top  (not so small actually any more) towns surrounded by woods.  The famous book “The Golden Bough” writes about the area because of the cult of Diana, among other things.

Though it’s true that Nemi is famous in Italy for it’s wild strawberries, they can be found just about anywhere in the woods in this area.  Fact is, most Romans come to the Alban Hills to sit in lake front cafes, visit the fabulous restaurants, “trattorie” (traditional family restaurants) and “fraschette” (once upon a time a wine cellar where the owners supplied you with their wine and bread – you brought your own food, now a very expensive sort of trattoria)  to drink and eat cooled wine and spiced pork, have ice cream and strawberries at the various “gelaterie” and of course to cool off from the hot summer heat of the big city.

It’s rare to see Romans hiking around in the woods, you’ve got them more or less to yourself … so you can walk, pick strawberries and do a little courting away from indiscreet eyes.

summer delights
tangy  strawberry kisses
shared in the woods

© G.s.k. ‘15