Love and revenge in ‘The scent of basil’ by Constance Diquattro

The goal of the writer, who has already signed with Gallucci ‘La Baronessa di Carini’, is to “give voice to the young loves, those we often leave on the street, along the complex evolution of life, and to whom we always look with so much nostalgia. And then I wanted to talk about jealousy, a very natural and stupid feeling, which sometimes, if not addressed well, can also destroy what we believed indestructible”. It is the summer of the penultimate year of high school and eight and Sebastian start from Trentino for their first holiday alone to Sicily. As soon as they arrive, they make friends with Lighea and Gigi, two local girls, who guide them to discover the sea and the treasures of their fascinating island. Between Lighea and Sebastian a spark immediately triggers. “Sebastian and Lighea – reads the book – continued to fix himself, regardless of the world; he occasionally mentioned a smile while she settled the rebellious tuft, all red in the face. They were tender, wrapped in that feeling of freedom and well -being that only the wonder of an unexpected encounter knows how to give giving”. Their sentimental agreement, however, dramatically recalls the ancient legend of the Moro heads: an intoxicating love marked by the assassin jealousy of a girl who killed his beloved, beheading him, and transforming his head into a vase in which to plant basil.

Between the two events they run a thousand years later, but to combine them there is the scent of basil, an apparently harmless plant, but in reality very dangerous for the traitors. The elements around which the story revolves are therefore a cloudy story, an unhappy love story and the encounter-clash of civilization. The legend of Moro heads, a source of inspiration for a novel by the Decameron di Boccaccio, speaks of passion, jealousy, betrayal: themes nowadays of great topical.