The below poem is written by  Ghazal Mosadeq in collaboration with Taraneh’s Tomato Resistance series of paintings.

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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?

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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.

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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.

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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

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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.