Jasmine The Queen of the Night

"But who cared whether dawn we sipped or dusk ... as we lingered, long as the heart allowed, in silky, longtime passion." -Gloria J. Leitner The Queen of the Night

The darkness has nurtured the fragrant fields of white jasmine all night long. The night-blooming pearls have shimmered with silent joy in the luminous moonlight. Now the inkling dawn is a soft gushing of jasmine that colours the sky with opalescent streams. The queen of the night releases her final and most delirious wave of fragrance before yielding to the stricture of daylight. A true creature of the moon, her milky flowers will once more close to dream until the gathering dusk arrives. She knows her pallid petals will again disclose their aromatic nectar to the mysterious narcosis of darkness.
Emerging from the dawning daylight like a swat team, teenage children start to work their way through the white-tufted fields. It's July, and because the holidays have arrived they have to help the grown-ups pick the prime jasmine, which they will do at least until the end of September. Grown-ups always complain of what a back-breaking job this is, they think. They have to bend over while we just reach straight ahead! The children pick only the fully-opened blossoms off the shrubs and throw them into a small, hand-held basket. They know not to squash any flower in the process, however, as this would mean a certain penalty.