Sub Rosa
Rose:
A common name for members of the family Rosaceae,herbs,
shrubs, and trees distributed across planet earth. Members of this family
include blackberries, raspberries, almonds, apricots, cherries, nectarines,
peaches, apples, pears, quinces, and strawberries--in short, a number of
fruits and even nuts.
Rose:
According to the ancient Persians, the symbol of joy, later of secrecy and silence. Joy, the infectious essence of intense gaiety, is that about which we have learned to keep silent, out of fear of the killjoys. The joy that dares not speak its name blooms gay and divine, crossing boundaries of territory and identification. Often it grows sub rosa to protect itself from the state and from hate, fascisms--governmental, corporate, and those that creep like metastasizing tumors in the heart, a withering blight. Beware of those bounded conformist sticks (fasces),those logs for torching, that know only second-hand roses, not fleurs du mal but the ashen flowers of envy, envy of happiness. A warning, but also a prediction. The Rose enflamed burns, yets casts an efflorescent light of illumination. Light-footed bees carry its scent on the wind--everywhere.
Copyright © 2001 by Jill Casid & María
DeGuzmán
SPIR: Conceptual Photography
All Rights Reserved