olive

A symbol of the life cycle, of the permanence of nature:
“the immortal tree”It grows slowly, just like human beings do. From a seed, it grows to a shoot. Young, it matures and it keeps shadow and humidity away from its body. It passes through the four seasons never shedding its leaves, which turn gray, green and silver. It loves the Mediterranean, the Aegean and the Southern coast. It welcomes the spring with small, fragile yellow and white flowers with a peculiar light scent. In the summer, flowers turn to fruit. As summer pass, the fruit grow larger and larger and mature, before being picked in autumn. After a long and productive life, its trunk becomes hollow and dries. However, this is not the end yet. Shoots from its roots will become a new tree.

The principal letters of the oldest alphabets reveal an agricultural society: Alpha refers to an ox; Beta to a house; Gamma to a camel; and Zeta (or zai) to an olive. In Hebrew, the name is Zait. Arabs call it Zaitun. Cretans called it Elaiwa and the Greeks call it today Elai. In western languages, it is referred to as “olive” (in French and English). Romans first called it “olea”, then “oliva”. The word became “vivax oliva” evoking the endurance of the tree, which means “the one which has seven lives”. Turks, who encountered the olive when they arrived in Anatolia, first called it zeytun and then zeytin, which is the modern Turkish word for olive today.

So we call it Sadece Zeytin. Ne extra oleas. Nothing but olive.