Zahrah Nasir learns some harsh truths on her visit to Kabul

“Gardening is for rich people” said the wizened, ethnic Tajik man sitting by a traditional wood burning stove in the back of a downtown flower market in Kabul. “See” he said, waving a hand towards buckets of imported gladioli and roses. “These pretty flowers are the result of gardening but only rich people can buy them while others, the real people of this world, go hungry and shelter-less in the cold.”

We had been discussing the difference between agriculture and horticulture, the first, according to him, the growing of food, the second the cultivation of flowers although, accepting his definition in the broadest of senses, I still disagreed as horticulturalists grow food too.

According to this elderly man whose family, he explained, had once owned agricultural land in Tajikistan but which they had lost due to, as he put it, ‘State intervention’, the state of the world can be measured by agriculture versus horticulture, by the production of food versus the production of flowers.

“These days the flower markets in Kabul do a roaring trade,” he continued. “Our clientele is limited to the very rich, of which, thanks to criminality and corruption, there are quite a few and to those silly people who get into debt by borrowing money for extravagant weddings that they cannot afford. It’s all about putting on a show.

“Come,” he instructs walking towards the door. “Look out here,” he points to the narrow street, the road almost blocked by ice and the snow which is falling heavily. “See those children begging there, those two beggar women in blue burqas and see that expensive, armoured 4x4 parked there while it is decorated with expensive flowers grown in hot countries and sold here at astronomical prices. See it all and then tell me if this is right. Is this the way the world should be?”

His anger and sadness are palpable and, as we go back to the warmth of the stove I dare to ask him why he is selling flowers not fruit and vegetables. He laughs and says, “I was waiting for you to ask that! This store belongs to a relative of mine and he asked me to work for him. I accepted, even though he should pay me more, as for an old man like me there is very little, if any, work to be had. So, here I am selling flowers to rich people who do not care if the poor live or die.

“But, do not be hard on me Kanum, when I am not working here I am an agriculturalist, growing food on an empty bit of land which, sooner or later, I will lose. The land is not mine you see. I have no idea who it belongs to but no land should be idle so, until it is claimed and I am evicted, I grow vegetables there and pray that the crops, little as they are, are harvested before the landowner throws me off. Many poor people in Kabul do this. We are often hungry, prices are very high, we survive as best we can and unused land is a sin.”

There are, as he, Abdullah pointed out, little plots of vegetables all over Kabul and, where there is no land to be used, then vegetables and grape vines are cultivated in rusty tins, buckets and any other useable container that comes to hand and yes, few people enjoy the luxury of growing flowers here although, it must be said that roses are still popular, their petals being used to make cooling summer drinks and sticky, very sweet, preserves.

In this torn apart, devastated country where survival is, for the majority, a hand-to-mouth affair, the truth in this flower seller’s words is sharp and clear and I am not at all surprised when he continues thus: “It is the same in your country too” he states knowingly. “I have been there, to Peshawar, Rawalpindi and Lahore. I see the gardens of the rich, all flowers, nothing to eat. I see the flower sellers. I see the growing legions of poor and I also see the writing on the wall. I have seen much in my long years. I see what others choose not to see — that land must be used to feed the people, not for useless ornamentation as much of it is right now. If the people in your country cannot see this yet, they will, mark my words, soon learn that in order to survive they must grow food and, if they have any sense, they will begin right now.”

Please send your gardening queries to zahrahnasir@hotmail.com. Remember to include your location. The writer will not respond directly by e-mail