I always find myself intricately engrossed with ‘soil’. Sometimes it is so simple & complex, both at the same time, ‘soil’ drenched with rainwater is so fragrant, and so as to beat any fancy ‘French perfume’ or fancy ‘fragrant flowers’. When the first downpour bathes & washes the ‘soil’ of course the ‘top soil’, as rest of the layers will get filtered through the ‘top soil’, the scent of that first shower gets amalgamated with ‘soil’ so soulfully it’s hard to describe! ‘Me & my princess’ just smudge our hands & feet with it not to forget, to smell it million times more so ever we throw ‘wet soil’ on each other. Don’t know why there are people who call soil ‘’dirt’’ but ultimately we all will cuddle in its lap & take a deep slumber whether we love it or not but that is the only inevitable truth so why not we passionately fall in love with it our ‘ultimate destination’.
We fondle & touch the ‘dry soil’, see & talk about its color, aroma, texture, cracks on the parched soil, the small little pebbles & stones hidden in it as if a ‘Choco brownie’ with nuts, my princess giggles saying this… The robust smell of ‘wet earth’ is magnetic beyond compare just have to feel the enigma that it up holds & why not?, as every bit of life-cycle starts in & succumbs in ‘soil’, as a handful of ‘soil’ is enough to sprout a small little ‘seed’ into ‘seedling’ and if observed carefully the first ‘cotyledon leaf’ whether it is monocot or dicot seems to be calling for a hug just like a small child and then it grows out to be a ‘mammoth tree’ or some kind of other vegetation.
In primary classes when I used to read different types of ‘soil’ and their texture it was a different world but now when you feel it each ‘soil’ has its own flavor, texture and feel, even the dry arid ‘soil’ has its own flavor. The grains are so coarse as if to be binded into ‘suji (Semolina) ka ladoo’… when rain water drenches it, my daughter chirps saying this and makes ‘small balls’. The different ‘soil’ has its distinct colors and texture and of course supports a different group of crop or vegetation. The equilibrium is mind-boggling. The smell of ‘wet soil’ is so robust and the texture so smooth to support all the creepy crawlies and ‘unicellular organisms’ who all might be very strong against us and far more intelligent than us.