om travel
exotic animal. The women started popping
up but capturing them on film turned out to
be more difficult then we thought. Women
in Berber culture are even more secluded
than in the Arab culture, and since the film
maker was a man they were not comfortable
talking to or even looking at him. Luckily he
could speak Berber (a language completely
different from Arabic) and we could explain
our intention. Some women finally agreed to
be filmed, although we were not allowed to
film their faces.
Watching the women collect the petals
was humbling. Women of all ages worked
together with the true spirit of community
and laughter. With the biggest gratitude in
my heart I warmly thanked them for letting
us take part in their beautiful ritual. We went
back to the village for the final day of the
festival and witnessed the coronation of the
Rose Queen: a fairytale-like scene played
out in front of us where the Rose Queen is
seated on a throne and carried through the
main street followed by a parade and crowd
who throw rose petals to her feet.Making memories
We had a few more days left in the valley,
which I had reserved for researching rose
water and a rose oil producing cooperative.
I spent a few days talking to different
producers, curious to learn their traditional
extraction methods and their values.
Producing 1ml of pure rose oil takes several
kilograms of rose petals; the process is
demanding and requires a lot of patience.
When it was time to leave I didn’t know
how I would be able to spend a day without
smelling a desert rose. A rose water mist
was now not just a spray I would spritz on
my face, it was an artefact of a journey that
changed my relationship to the scent of the
rose forever.
Now, every time I smell a rose, I have a
string of memories that come wading in.
It’s beautiful to experience how a flower
can be so much more then just an
aromatic plant.Nena Stojova is the founder of Bare Origin
fairtrade skincare (bareoriginskin.com)