Bactrocera oleae

Only the sardonic streak of Luciano Ragozzino, a biologist, engraver and art editor, as well as the creator of flaming bookplates that have won him many awards, could have come up with this image. Here is an olive tree, unveiled, in all its splendid vigour.

If the central figure, with its forceful presence – trunk, canopy and fruit included – needs no explanation, unless one is devoid of sight and spirit, the lower part of the bookplate calls for more discrete attention.
As in many wooden altarpieces, the artist has inserted a sort of plinth, engraving two olive fruit flies in the lower panel of his work.

Both Nature and the farmers know only too well what they are up to.
Enraptured by their senses, they remind us of how Eros toys with our lives, regardless of class and status, dispensing pleasure and unhappiness in equal measure.

We therefore toast to the health of the olive tree and Bactrocera oleae, its insidious slave.
Proof of love always proves something.

The picture above, commented by Nicola Dal Falco, depicts the work of Luciano Ragozzino, on display at the fourth Olio Officina Food Festival

Nicola Dal Falco