Home is Where the Heart is

The Peppercorn Tree- my forever place

While driving through the countryside recently, I was watching the sun shining on the green fields and the animals nibbling away at the grass. As I breathed in the crystal clean air, I began mentally wandering through my childhood memories.

We stopped by the roadside under the shade of an enormous peppercorn tree and I automatically reached up and squashed the leaves in my hand, a habit developed during my early growing up years in a mining town in Central Queensland.

Just across the road from my childhood home there were two enormous pepper trees (Pepperina trees as my friend Rosy and I used to call them). Their branches were huge and they used to drape over the trunk and reach to the ground, much like a Weeping Willow tree. We used to play shops in the cubby houses that they formed. Their pink berries were apples and the groundcover of fat, squishy leaves, were bananas.

It's interesting how the simple scent of these crushed leaves evokes almost every childhood memory I possess. I’m guessing that I’m not the only one whose emotions are triggered by the sight, sound or scent of a long-ago memory.

The smell of freshly baked bread takes me back to walking passed the bakery on my way home from Mass early on a Sunday morning, the smell of freshly cut grass triggers memories of Dad mowing while I sat under the mango tree slurping on its fruit and the scent of freshly brewed coffee reminds me of my wonderful Dutch in-laws.

It is however, the crushed pepperina leaves that are my favourite, as they take me to that special place in my heart that is forever home.

Do you have memories that are triggered by specific scents and sounds?