“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived”

Thoreau, H. D., ‘Walden’ (1854)

Velvety silver leaves that intoxicate the mind with history and mythology. This is the magic that envelops and pervades Origanum dictamnus.

Known under various denominations, such as 'oregano of Crete' or 'dittamus of Crete', the Latin epithet dictamnus it would seem a direct reference to the Greek mountain Dikti, where the god Zeus was born, or to the Minoan goddess Diktynna, who baptized the plant with her name.

It is a small spontaneous perennial bush right on the beautiful and wild island of Crete. There it grows undisturbed among the treacherous mountains, still representing for the local population the panacea for all ills: hypertension, pain, wounds, cough, but first of all the incurable disease of Love. Crowds of young lovers and newlyweds thus pushed themselves over the centuries in search of that splendor in bloom. Finding it and bringing it as a gift to the beloved would have been the auspices and seal of a splendid love life together.

Perhaps this is how we should consider ourselves, seekers, like so many other men before us, of beauties and rarities that our world offers us without wanting anything in return. Seekers made of dedication and audacity, the same ones that animated the hearts of those seekers of Love. And every time we manage to soothe our humble thirst for research and knowledge, we will perhaps at least partially heal the pains that afflict our souls and our hearts.