Figs - World of Words

Figs — Co-creating beauty within and around us

Fig, (Ficus carica), plant of the mulberry family (Moraceae) and its edible fruit. The common fig is indigenous to an area extending from Asiatic Turkey to northern India, but natural seedlings grow in most Mediterranean countries.

In the Mediterranean region the fig is so widely used, both fresh and dried, that it is called “the poor man’s food.”

Figs in history

The fig tree appears repeatedly in both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible, but it has been cultivated for much longer. Sumerian stone tablets dating back to 2500 B.C. record culinary use of figs. Figs hold a position of symbolism in many world religions, including Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Judaism, and Buddhism, representing fertility, peace, and prosperity.

Ancient Olympians earned figs for their athletic prowess, and Pliny the Elder extolled the fruit's restorative powers. The prophet Mohammed reportedly identified the fig as the one fruit he would most wish to see in paradise.

Image from The Guardian

The story of the fig and its wasp

They say true love means growing together — or, as the poet Manhae wrote in the 1926 piece “Parting”: Love isn’t only in the candle’s red flame or the fresh wine, it’s in the formlessness that mirrors each others’ minds through the distance. If what they say is true, then there may be no more perfect lovers than the fig tree and the fig wasp.

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In our recent digital initiative — World of Words, we have carefully selected a handful of beautiful creation of God that means something to us. We used them as our new website imagery as part of the celebration of life we tend to miss out in our hectic daily lives. We hope you will take a moment to pause, breathe and admire these wonderful things around us.

References:

Meaty, jammy and very Instagrammable: why figs are having a moment by The Guardian
The story of the fig and its wasp by ESA Org
The history of figs by The Spruce Eats
Romancing The Figts by KEAP

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