Sunday 23 September 2007

Three shades of red

Yesterday I accidentally cut the top of my left index finger with a scalpel knife. It didn’t hurt, so I only noticed when I looked down at my khaki-clad legs which were generously dotted with what I initially took for drops of beetroot juice. The dots kept multiplying under my eyes until I realised blood was dripping from a shiny red finger.
This morning I washed the dishes, as usually wearing Woolworth’s own 49 p yellow rubber gloves, medium size. When I took the left one off, a finger emerged wet with blood. The wound had opened again, what with the hot and humid climate inside the glove. Peering into the rubber sheath I found that the white lining inside the index finger was brilliant red. I filled the glove with water and poured it out into the sink several times; each time the water came out a paler shade.
Later-on when I prepared to make juice from beetroot, carrots, celery and an apple I forgot to put the receptacle under the spout. Pressing down on the first slice of beetroot I saw a dark pool of crimson form on the gleaming white worktop.

6 comments:

Cathy said...

I like very much the description: 'hot and humid inside the glove'. Absorbing piece of writing, thanks for sharing. Cathy

Ursula Achten said...

I'm fascinated....I KNOW this!!
Watching small drops of blood dripping slowly onto a white handkerchief or (blush) a piece of watercolour-paper, what a beautiful shade of deep red you body produces...
No...well.. I'm normal ;) but it really IS a beautiful colour.
And I love beetroots, too!!

redredday said...

are beets the same as beetroots? seems like there is a lot of talk of beetroots lately (Cathy also had a post mentioning it a bit)...
i used them in soups with the reddish skin peeled off. drawn by their color as i was shaving them off, i've been saving the small pieces of skin to add to my papier mache mixture, thinking that they might create a sort of a dye on it. haven't tested it out yet but right now they are like small curly dried petals. the color that they have now become is so much darker and duller than when it was that hot purple reddish color when fresh.
uhhh...where was i?
...this is a strange post to respond to...and Uschi keeps revealing some rather questionable details of herself these days...

Marjojo, interesting that you took the picture of the flowers out because i was a little confused by it and kept trying to find the colors you're writing about in the colors of the flower but they did not quite match up. without it, i see the colors more clearly in my mind. funny how that works. the writing of the pale shade of washed-out blood makes me feel most queasy. flesh blood, dark pool of blood, all not as bad. but blood being washed away, leaving the body, the surface that it is clinging to, and being diluted from life, just does not sit too well.

Marjojo said...

Dear all, thanks for your comments! And Mien, beets and beetroots are the same and there is a delicious Russian soup to be cooked from it, bortsch. What soup do you cook? I love eating beetroot fresh and raw, it has this crunchy earthy taste, you really taste that this is a root, has come from underground, which gets lost when cooked. And of course it leaves its traces on you while you cut/eat. Love your description of pieces of skin as small curly dried petals.
Re: the picture. Yeah, I needed a little bit of courage to just post a text, don't trust in my writing that much yet... I realised it was a bit of a cop-out and decided to delete the pic initially posted as it distracted from the essence of the text. I wanted to evoke visual images through writing and then almost spoiled it by adding the pic. Glad I took it out and glad you could see things clearly in your mind then.
How interesting that you find the diluted blood most difficult. And maybe interesting that we all can find blood dripping fascinating and beautiful. In a controlled context of course, no violence involved.

redredday said...

Marjojo, i only know how to make one kind of soup besides the carrot soup...it's just a clear broth with whatever vegetables (or some optional meat) in it. very simple, add a bit of seasoning to it and depending on what kind of vegetables, the flavor is slightly different. so with the beets when they're boiled 'til tender, they actually taste almost exactly like white turnips but cuter since they're little balls instead just chunks.

i like eating them raw too. not sure about the bortsch soup. i had one served cold before and was not too crazy about it. but maybe it was something else i had since the recipes i'm looking at here are not served cold.

redredday said...

yes, violence involved, the color red would be entirely something else. or maybe not entirely...? i often find that the opposite extremes usually come from the same place. like the nicest people may be the ones who can be the cruelest, no? it seems like it's all in the capacity within, if that makes any sense.