The below poem is written by Ghazal Mosadeq in collaboration with Taraneh’s Tomato Resistance series of paintings.
The Apple of the Moors
You know what I think these days? It just dawned on me there is a cation-anion
balance in different tissues of tomato plants that are supplied with nitrate, urea, or
ammonium nitrogen in water culture. You too, think about plant physiology and
nutrition when you are bored?
Now am sipping on carrot juice and am pretty certain that if I think more about
tomatoes I might even find a very close balance found in the tissues (leaves,
petioles, stems, and roots) between total cations (Ca, Mg, K and Na), and total
anions (NO3−, H2PO4−, SO4−−, Cl−) total non-volatile organic, oxalate, and uronic
acids. You might look at all tomatoes differently. Or not. Anyway, J. Benton Jones Jr.
thinks tomatoes are more popular than beef steaks.
What are we to do for a tomato plant? Have we ever checked the astrological chart
of the plant? Were the Spanish and Portuguese explorers who spotted the plant in
South America, real explorers? What were they doing in Mexico? Did they set sail
with the hope of finding a red, round, juicy, tomatoee thing to bring back home?
From what they left in the continent, a language has survived and lots of wounds.
From what they took, the tomato is remained, which is red.
Chile Galapagos Islands
Peru Ecuador
Tomato is grown for its looks
The colonisers found it poisonous. But who is more poisonous, really
Now it is a major food. It is better than the fish fingers
But we must protect tomato against late blight elicited by plant growth promoting
rhizobacteria, you know? Say gold apple. Say Wolf Peach. Say Apple of Love. Love
aid aphrodisiac puritan killer. Claimed independence and remained wild in Andes.
Once spotted in a gumbo soup, puréed and smooth. Forced through a sieve.
Separated from the seeds and skin. Destroyed its ionic balance.
Dripping down the spoon on white shirts. A cluster of seeds on the sieve. Look
at the sky. Not now, at night. When it’s dark. Redeem the stars. Even if they
appear poisonous, they can’t rub you out that rapidly. Takes million light years
for the poison to transfer. Talk about real distance here. You’ll be murdered in
million years by a tomato star and astronauts will spot no physical murderer.
Now I am thinking about a murder case associated with vegetables and galaxies.
And am thinking of the supreme court of justice. I imagine killer tomatoes, hot
tomatoes, tomato-fatals. Sexy nightshades. Homegrown killers. Decorative and
mysterious.