Portals

Tree of Idleness

The Cypriot village of Bellapais and the "tree of idleness" were immortalized in Lawrence Durrell's book "Bitter Lemons of Cyprus" in which he described the villagers' favourite activity which was to spend hours and hours in idle chatting under the so-called "Tree of Idleness" which dominated the main square. Throughout the whole book there is no mention about what kind of a tree it was. Today there are two trees that compete for this title. One is a leafy ancient, now-sickly mulberry tree overshadowing the coffee shop next to the Bellapais Abbey ticket booth. The other contender is a Japanese pagoda tree that casts its shadow over the eponymous Huzur Agaç (Tree of Idleness) restaurant. Fairly, both trees could qualify for the role pretty well as each of them attracts a crowd of onlookers. Still it is usually the mulberry under which the men of the village sit on their rustic chairs clutching a cold beer and play a game of backgammon. The picture is very much alike to Durrell's story in which villagers would idle the days away. Whichever tree it is does not really matter since the story brings many visitors and remains a constant source of debate (modified from North Cyprus Online).

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/214948.Bitter_Lemons_of_Cyprus

Featured Photo Albums

Late April 2017 I was in Cyprus and posted photos of the island in an Album entitled Cyprus - "The Other Side". Cyprus, an island in the Eastern Mediterranean, has a history of civilization, and occupation, stretching back many millennia to evidence of Neolithic occupation approximately 10,000 BCE. In the mid 20th Century, under and following British occupation, Cyprus experienced bitter internal conflict, primarily between the Greek majority and Turkish minority populations, culminating with an invasion in 1974 of the northern area of the island by Turkish military forces. Since then, the island has been divided, with the northern portions remaining Turkish (Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus) and the southern portions remaining predominantly Greek (Republic of Cyprus) and part of the European Union.