Olives and October
on resistance, fires and rage
October is a month of colors. It welcomes September’s vibrant orange and red leaves and plucks them softly. It begins with a warm embrace — likely the last of the year — as it braces for the impending cold winds and dark clouds. A month between heat and frost. October reminds us of the land that provides and its perseverance to live on.
Past Octobers hold a lot of the same memories. It’s a month of many harvests. Some crops are uprooted and killed, and others produce their fruits and live on another year. A sweet season of pumpkins and figs, yet also a sour season of apples and olives.
Olives and October. They share the same first letter, the same shape. The month is numbered by a branch (1) and an olive (0). Alike in similar appearance, but also in characteristics. Symbolizing peace, resistance, hope, determination.
Last October and this year the olive harvest across the world suffered greatly. Greece experienced a “dismal” harvest due to weather conditions, along with other European countries that produce olives and its oil. “Scorching temperatures” in the summer were to blame for the trees lack of production.
I wonder if those olive trees feel the pain of the olive trees across the Mediterranean Sea. I wonder if they self-immolated, if they surrendered themselves to the sun, to raise the alarms on their brethren in Palestine. I wonder if they felt the man-made flames burning the olive trees across the Holy Land for centuries and had enough. I wonder if they tried to express themselves through their produce. If their oil started to taste too sour and bitter, but the farmers and the world didn’t notice.
The fires set by Zionists have engulfed hundreds of pounds of soft and hard flesh of olives, and have grown greedy. The scorching flames extended to consume human flesh in Gaza.
October has seen more red and orange than ever before. It’s seen so much heat, more than is naturally possible. The screams of the trees are pulsating throughout the earth, fueling anger in crops seas away. The screams of the Palestinians are being heard across the globe, reverberating around campuses and government offices.
Yet the spirit of those olive trees, of those souls, of the land, continues on. It lives on. No matter the amount of destruction, and lives taken, the flames continue to ignite sparks of rage and movement, that attempt to extinguish the fiery hatred and evil on this earth. Until the Day where those who unjustly burned God’s creation will be repeatedly incinerated in an eternal blazing Fire hotter than any earthly flame.
إِنَّ ٱلَّذِينَ فَتَنُوا۟ ٱلْمُؤْمِنِينَ وَٱلْمُؤْمِنَـٰتِ ثُمَّ لَمْ يَتُوبُوا۟ فَلَهُمْ عَذَابُ جَهَنَّمَ وَلَهُمْ عَذَابُ ٱلْحَرِيقِ
Those who persecute the believing men and women and then do not repent will certainly suffer the punishment of Hell and the torment of burning [85:10]