Volume 2, Issue 5
November 2009
Copyright © All rights reserved. Made By OliveNet Design.
| Previous Issue | Archive | Advertisers | Roda Online | Roda Forum |
| Previous Issue | Archive | Advertisers | Roda Online | Roda Forum |
Time Passes Slowly
Deep in the occupied north of Cyprus is the village of Bellapais with an ancient mulberry tree that has come to represent a Greek trait that many of us admire & aspire to. It took Lawrence Durrell, in his book ‘Bitter Lemons’, to coin the now famous phrase ‘Tree of Idleness’ and he was warned not to spend too long in its shade in case he succumbed, like many before him, to its soporific spell. Warnings abound – sitting in the shadow of the tree will incapacitate you for serious work and if that is what you need to do then stay well clear. Sitting under the tree will induce laziness & inactivity and all you will be fit for is watching the world go by.
Of course, many traditional Greek villages have a ‘tree of idleness’, usually situated near the village centre and often shading the one & only ‘kafeneion’. This is the place where the older people sit discussing life or simply watching the modern world drive by on its way to who knows where? Inevitably, those sitting under the tree are accompanied by those great companions of idleness - coffee, cigarettes and a newspaper. Time passes very slowly.
Our observation is that Corfiots are hard-working people, but that doesn’t prevent many of them from spending a little time each day under their nearest tree of idleness in the company of professional idlers who have developed loafing into a serious art-form. In Corfu Town, by far the biggest and most fashionable tribute to this concept must be the tree lined Liston under which hundreds of people can be idle at any one time. As Agatha Christie said – perhaps necessity is not the mother of invention. Invention
Our observation is that Corfiots are hard-working people, but that doesn’t prevent many of them from spending a little time each day under their nearest tree of idleness in the company of professional idlers who have developed loafing into a serious art-form. In Corfu Town, by far the biggest and most fashionable tribute to this concept must be the tree lined Liston under which hundreds of people can be idle at any one time. As Agatha Christie said – perhaps necessity is not the mother of invention. Invention
arises directly from idleness & laziness – to save oneself the trouble!
The nearest thing to the tree of idleness we have in Roda is the magnificent fig tree growing on the beach under which the taxi drivers sit practicing this time-honoured tradition while waiting for the next fare. With their coffees from the Afrodite across the road, they quickly slip back into the habits of their forefathers until the modern world once again demands their attention. Keep up the good work, lads!
The nearest thing to the tree of idleness we have in Roda is the magnificent fig tree growing on the beach under which the taxi drivers sit practicing this time-honoured tradition while waiting for the next fare. With their coffees from the Afrodite across the road, they quickly slip back into the habits of their forefathers until the modern world once again demands their attention. Keep up the good work, lads!
