Bitter is a lost taste, even though bitterness is delicious and cures

Mural by Mona Caron for Exomusée , Le Locle, Switzerland. Drone shots by Mauro Neri.

Mona Caron: Gentiana Lutea – studding the landscape here in the highs of the Jura mountains, standing tall in the rolling meadows like little flagpoles marking the spots where you can dig for its magic and prized bitter root, a key ingredient of many vermouths, liqueurs, firewaters, syrups and tinctures, here in the homeland of Absinthe.

Bitter is a lost taste, even though bitterness is delicious and cures. Addiction to the sweet has narrowed the spectrum of pleasures that palates can enjoy, keeping many from healthy habits.

So I offer this bitter-rooted wildflower, a field weed as metaphor of resilience through the strength we gain by daring something feared, perhaps uncomfortably new but actually ancient, unearthing both medicine and pleasure which nature has been beckoning us towards all along. Follow the golden-flowered beacon.