It is the fabled mandrake whose totemic root resembles the human form.
This bifurcated tuber was said to scream when plucked from the soil killing all within earshot.
All parts of it when eaten send people into an other worldly state of phantasms and shadowy dreams and for many a frothing and frenzied death.
It was the pathway to the Green Man and all the gods of the Celtic canon. It is the indigenous Ayahuasca of the European traditions.
Here this homunculus is found strewn around the ancient prayer stones like some livid toxic confetti.
In these circumscribed times, it is a forgotten relic of earlier days and a more participative way of being.
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Photo: Mandrake at Saladaviciosa. Courtesy of the author.