I feel a need to explain it about the herbs. Why me? Why herbs? Why not any other thing under the sun?
Many many years ago, when the stinging nettle stalks were taller than me, we used to have a hut in a village, located about 100km away from Kiev. The village was called Kodra, and there was one unpaved street going through it. The street had one electric light on it, and behind the houses was The Forest, where you could walk all the way from Minsk to Moscow and never see a human. The Forest had mushrooms, raspberries, wild strawberries, gooseberries, forest nuts, and if you were little or willing to bend down all the way to the ground - also blueberries. Did you know that blueberries grow on a tree that's 20 cm tall? And the berries hide under the leaves? Well, come to the Ukraine and see for yourself.
Every morning, at exactly 6 am there would be a procession down that one dirt track. A procession of cows. Vast, up to the sky creatures, with bells on their necks and sharp horns and clever sad eyes. They would walk past, and sometimes stick their heads between the gate and the fence, and then I would cry and run back to Mommy. But usually they just shook their heads and their bells, and sometimes lifted their tails, and -plop! Of course. What else do you expect of cows?
At 6pm they would walk back, with the udders hanging almost to the ground. Women in head kerchiefs would come out, whip them gently with a soft branch, and say, OO! Come home, you! - or something like that, but with a great love in their voice. The street smelled of cowpats, milk, fat, dirt, and love.
And then it was night. At night the only lamp in the whole village was switched off, and I felt like I had no eyes at all. Many years alter when I heard about Egyptians being punished by darkness, I immediately thought of Kodra. I would touch my eyes to make sure I still had them, and look desperately for something, the moon, maybe, or some candle in the house across. If I found it, I slept. If not.. my poor mom. Now I understand.. Sorry, mom.
One time we brought a hedgehog from the Forest. And every night he would walk around, under the beds, too, making step-step-step noises, and sniffing around for food, bugs, or whatever else they eat. In the morning I would give him milk, and he got his nose all wet with it. I would pat him as he drank, and no, they are not prickly if you love them. Yes, my first pet was a hedgehog. Would you like one? Come, let's buy tickets to Ukraine. Ukraine, where the soil is so rich, that if you stick a branch in, on the morrow you'll find a whole tree, like Aharon's staff, complete with leaves and all.
Next to the gate there were two enormous Linden trees. And when I say enormous, I mean by Ukrainian standards. It would take about 5 grown men to hug each one around. Yes, that's where I learned to hug trees - how else do you measure them? In the spring people collected the flowers, and if anyone ever got a fever, the medicine was Linden tea and raspberry jam. Are you jealous of my childhood yet? You should be, by now.
The village was the kids' kingdom. The locals wore cloth slippers on the street, which amazed the city girl greatly. And I guess they didn't know I was a dirty Jew, because they played with me. I told them about the books I read in the big city, and they told me how to be friends with everything around us. If we got a scraped knee, we pulled a leaf of Plantago off, and spat on it, and covered the cut - and you know what? It stopped bleeding! If you needed to wash your hands, there were bushes of Saponaria around - notice the Hebrew "sabon" in the name? Yes, it's soap. You rub the leaves between your palms, and it becomes soap. Chelidonium would help you if you had warts or pimples, and Shepherd's purse stopped the internal bleeding. But pray for your life if you rub Chelidonium into your eyes.. oh yes, I had to learn that lesson, too. it's worse than any shampoo, believe me.
If you're hungry - besides all the delicious berries and fruit - there are Acacia flowers, with their sweet juice. Go on, throw a stone at me if you didn't suck Acacia flowers as a child. If you get diarrhea, you drink Oak bark tea, and if you're sad, you take Hypericum. It goes on, with Calendula and Thymus, Camomile and Tussilago. Russian pharmacies did not have drugs - which was not a good thing, of course. They had cotton wool and herbs.
One day I was standing by that fence, and I saw a tall, lanky man in a sun-bleached hat lean on our fence.
-Son of Abram! -he called to my father. -hey you, son of Abram! - he was speaking Ukrainian, but with a funny accent.
My dad came to the fence, and the man told him something, pointing at me. I came over to listen. I remember looking up at him, and seeing a pair of the most crystal-blue eyes ever. Now I know it's the colour of the sky above Jerusalem in the early spring. But then I did not know. The man didn't have his front teeth, and he had a big cloth bag, swung over his shoulder.
- Do you eat sweets, little girl? - he asked sternly. I ran to mommy, of course. I felt those eyes following me. How on Earth did he know?
Later my mom explained that the man is called a herbalist. That his bag was for collecting plants. And that he lost his teeth in Stalin's labor camp, which he survived only because he knew herbs and served for a doctor. I knew what a labor camp was, because my mom made the mistake of leaving the issue of "Novii Mir" on the table, and I read Solgenitzin's "Ninth circle" , where they built huts out of dead bodies to protect themselves from the snow storm. I know, a fine reading for a six year old!
I remember walking around for days afterwards, fascinated with the herbalist. Looking out for him to ask him questions. I wanted to say to him, Uncle! Teach me to read the nature! Teach me to survive in the Forest, like the Mohicans and Mowgli! I was noticing and loving the useful plants even more...Always. And then the total shock of the plants being absent in Israel. What do you do for a cut? For a fever? Just to tell you that I OD-ed on Paracetamol at the age of 17 here, because I did not know you couldn't just take them like herbs.. I was alone in the country and too independent to ask questions. Idiot. Thank God nothing happened to my liver, and then I knew to be careful...
And now do you know why I love herbs? Why I can't wait to tell everybody how good they are? And now I have not only Ukrainian herbs, but from the whole world. I think they are - each one of them - a real miracle.
