The olive tree is like no other. Its cultivation is said to have begun six millennia ago, and is now an industrial activity. It’s true that the tree has some unusual characteristics. In addition to its fruit and bitter oil, the olive tree has an amazing regenerative capacity…

On the island of Crete, its oil was stored in huge jars even before mankind built the Pyramids of Giza. See this remarkable Vivid Maps article about a group of mythical olive trees in Lebanon called “Noah’s sisters”.

Have you noticed that the shade of its leaves is silver? This detail has always intrigued me.
As an olive tree ages, it produces growths called “suckers” on its trunk base and never dies of old age. This explains the twisted shape an olive tree trunk can take.
The olive tree can only die from poisoning or deprivation. A new tree grows on the old; it’s not another olive tree, it’s another itself, an expression of the same genotype. Like a phoenix.

Olive tree, in Italian Olivo or Ulivo, from the Latin Oliva, derives from the Greek Elaiva and its archaic form Elaion, in Linear B, one of the oldest writings. From the Cretan Elaion to the English Oil, there’s just one step.

Where do olive trees come from? According to Greek tradition, the source would be the island of Crete. According to historians, the Near East. According to botanists, it’s more likely from the heart of the Sahara, around 10,000 BC, with the earliest forms of wild oleaceae. And in the Quran, we find the mysterious verse known as the Verse of Light:

The olive tree neither comes from the East nor from the West.
Its oil is luminous, though fire has not touched it.

One thing is certain: the expansion and cultivation methods of the olive tree, from Lebanon to the Azores, are credited to the Phoenicians. There’s a Phoenician god called Aion. Passed on to the Greeks and then to the Romans, his main attribute is the olive tree. Emperor Hadrian chose it to mint coins portraying sometimes an old man, sometimes a child, accompanied by his Phoenix, the embodiment of the Golden Age. In essence, Aion and his olive tree form a cyclical representation of time. Could the olive tree be the tree of life?

Today, Spain accounts for 25% of the world’s production, followed by Italy, Greece, and Tunisia.
France produces 0.4%, with a few Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) varieties. Olive oil is good for your health. Recommended for aiding digestion, treating skin disorders, coughs, sore throats and respiratory problems. The olive tree also features on the flag of the United Nations… It represents regeneration, peace and life.

And it holds the memory of the world’s early mornings.
No, it’s not just any tree.