Human beings have a remarkable ability to remember aromas. All of our senses can be connected with memories but perhaps none evoke nostalgia as much as smell. The olfactory bulb has easy access to a part of the brain known as the amygdala, which plays a role in evoking emotional memories.

Yesterday I got a very, very heavy dose of nostalgia when I walked past the jasmine in our garden, which is in full bloom now that summer has arrived.

It never fails … every time I get a whiff of jasmine in the air, I always get a very evocative memory: my home in Aleppo, Syria. That aroma just triggers something in my brain which conjures up memories. I had a courtyard/garden laced with jasmine and when summer struck the air became floral. It wasn’t just my home though. Aromas of jasmine drifted through my entire neighbourhood in Shahba. And so that little corner of our garden where the jasmine grows so abundantly is my Little Aleppo.

We didn’t plant the jasmine in our garden in Australia … it came with the house. As I recall we had a trellis of it growing in the front of the house which we removed when we built the verandah. I never like to ‘throw’ away plants so I think I just re-planted it in the bottom corner of the garden along the fenceline and forgot about it. I pretty much just let it do its own thing there and it’s loving me for that. It is growing out of control. I never water, fertilise or prune it.

I suspect it is Jasminum polyanthum, or pink jasmine or white jasmine, which originates from China and Burma. But here is Australia it almost a weed as it grows like crazy. But I’m perfectly fine with that and it can invade my lower corner of the garden because that little corner of the garden evokes the most wonderful memories.