La eMe

Adam_Ottone · March 6

There is a special flower that blooms in massive quantities every year in Colombia, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, and some lonely parts of our own southern Mexico. A "perfect" flower by biological terms, it's small, yellow, smells like summer, and heralds a very busy harvest season to come. It heralds deft hands drying and grinding the leaves of the bush it grows on, before their date with a kerosene bath. A trip on a boat or on a plane, wrapped in plastic, and maybe even snug in a very desperate man's lower intestines. Finally, an exchange of American dollars for a taste of invincibility.

The flowers turn into berries, which are sadly of no interest to anyone of interest. The berries are, however, a deep shade of red, and yes - you guessed it - most of all, the humble coca flower heralds blood.