Japanese indigo…

I planted the seeds in the spring. Kept them in the airing cupboard to germinate. Watered and worried about them daily. Had them on the windowsill until they looked good and strong and introduced them to the outside world in May. The earth was rich and dark and I covered the ground in sheep’s wool from a kindly neighbour’s kindly sheep to deter the slugs and trap the damp. To my surprise, and in spite of the hens, they grew. Even seemed to quite like this sheltered corner of the garden, these bright green and vibrant looking plants. When my little niece visited we had fun testing the leaves. Squishing them between our fingers, watching the skin turn blue…It was astonishing.

This year in September, a paper was published in PLOS one describing the discovery of indigo (from woad) on stone grinding tools found in a cave in Georgia. The tools dated from 34,000 years ago, indicating its use deep in the Paleolithic, many thousands of years earlier than thought. The researchers do not know exactly what it would have been used for. Woad, indigo and relatives are well known for their incredible antiseptic properties. Orangutans in Sumatra have been seen using another medicinal plant to cover wounds. Samurai warriors wore underclothes dyed with indigo for the same purpose. The Celts too must have understood their increased chances of survival in battle if their skin was dyed with woad. But blue is a rare colour in nature. Of the words for colour, ‘blue’ is the last to arrive in the language of every culture studied for this in the world. In the Illiad and Odyssey it is not mentioned once. Homer famously described the sea as ‘wine-dark’. And so, as I grind this gift from this remarkable plant, grind this strange magic colour to powder, after weeks of fermenting, aerating and settling, I think of those people, 34,000 years ago. Think of them pounding leaves in the entrance of a remote cave. Think of their extraordinary knowledge of the living, breathing world around them. And wonder what they might have said as, a little while later, their stones and skin turned the colour of the night sky…