persimmon... persimmon...

I was scanning thru my daily blog read over at papermag.com and stumbled upon this entry that talked about a curious looking fruit called the persimmon. She (the author) talked about how delightful an experience it was discovering how her persimmon tree at her yard gifted her of the most deliciously sweet persimmons ever… and how only recently that she did appreciate it after all these years. (She gave them away to friends, squirrels and birds…)

So then I remember coming home one night and entering my parents’ room and plopping myself in front of the TV. My dad sort of jumps out of the bed in excitement and tell me he’s going to let me eat something he bought from rustan’s fresh earlier. So I wonder anong ka-weirdohan nanaman ang naisip bilhin ng dad ko from the supermarket… so he comes up with this Tupperware in his hands, and I see a fruit halve. Well I wasn’t sure what it was at first, it sort of looked like a tomato… then I thought why would my dad feed me some oversized tomato. So he slices me a tiny piece and I sort of stare at this weird red-orange colored flesh that feels syrupy and grainy to the touch. I pop it in my mouth and my taste buds signal “CHICO!”. Well, it tasted like chico. It was sweet and grainy but slimy, definitely not a chico (slight off topic, alam niyo ba na pwede kayong malasing by eating a ton of chico?!). Then I go and ask my dad what the hell it was, asking if it was indeed chico. He says, “Persimmon, anak!”. My dad is such a barrio boy when he talks about produce of this sorts (not that there is anything bad about being a barrio boy). Then I go and say to myself.,“Mu Qi?! Is that you?!”.

Mu Qi is a chinese zen Buddhist painter from the Song Dynasty. I studied him in Art History 2 class with sir leo. So anyway, this guy painted this…



Entitled, “Six Persimmons”. Now you say, ok it looks like some ink blot painting that typically Chinese art. Wait till you find out that this painting is actually, if I remember right.. quite significant to the development of Chinese art. Because not only does it convey perfection (boy do they like being perfect) in terms of composition (the persimmons being the only objects in that picture plane), but it also has this certain play with how the fruits appear to look like porcelain pieces laid out on a table. And how remarkably calligraphy is infused within the work. O di ba? Painting plus calligraphy! That’s what I remember from Art History class. I may have forgotten other details and stuff. What evs. I just wanted to talk about Mu Qi and those persimmons.

Now, if I could only escape the urge to write about the Palette of Narmer.