Winter Masasa

The Masasa tree covers many of the hills in my native Zimbabwe.

In this part of Africa the winters are dry and can be quite cold.

In October, in early spring, the heat arrives with a vengeance and blisters the parched bushveld before the rains arrive to cool off the shimmering lands.

It is in the midst of this October heat that the Masasa trees suddenly burst into leaf. The bleached and dry hillsides are transformed into swathes of green.

The Masasa has big twisted pods, which after the rains, when the bush and the pods dry up in winter, split with a crack and fling their seeds wide onto the earth.

There to await the rains and the next cycle of life

These pods were the inspiration for these earrings.