Roots and Resistance

Roots and Resistance is a trilogy of candles falling under my candle brand, Minister of the Muses, a passion project through which I have created other lines of candles, such as the Silk Road line.

Roots and Resistance venerates the national trees of Lebanon, Yemen, and Palestine, or the cedar, olive, and dragonblood trees, respectively. These trees are rooted in each of the aforementioned indigenous cultures, and provided them with sustenance, medicine, and timber. They also tend to live hundreds, and even thousands of years, if left undisturbed. This line was inspired by the phrase, “cedar trees do not bend, and olive trees do not break”, to which I added on my own “dragonblood trees do not bleed”.

Of course, this all stemmed (pun intended?) from the turbulence all these trees have faced in our region: olive trees being razed, cedar trees being burnt, and dragonblood trees being uprooted and shipped to unsuitable climates for their beauty and their prized blood-red sap.

Each of my candles in Roots and Resistance evokes nostalgia upon lighting: the fragrant air of olive groves, growing alongside orange blossoms in Jaffa, or the crisp Mediterranean breeze mingling with the scent of cedar, or the smokey incense of dragonblood resin, with whispers of cardamom.