"Jaffa" Painting

As part of a series of paintings whose theme is "home" - things that are around me and give me the feeling of home. Not necessarily my private home, the 4 walls that define my personal space, but more things whose being gives me this special sense of belonging, of memories and the "smell of home". The lemon tree can be found in almost every garden in the kibbutz, and perhaps even in almost every private house with a garden in Israel. A land of citrus fruits. With the lemon adding so much flavor to a fresh vegetable salad, it is a really significant part of our kitchen. And then shortly after I started this painting, the last combat began - rockets from Gaza, destruction of buildings in response, a violent eruption of Arab and Jewish extremists. One of those days I passed an intersection near my home where there was a civil protest about the situation and a desire to express that it is possible to live together, in coexistence and with the understanding that it is the home of many people. And one of the signs had a graphic of the word home in Arabic and Hebrew together. And I liked it. The lemon, and citrus fruits that have been in Israel for many years and are also identified with them and with the JAFFA brand, which developed mainly during the British Mandate in Israel, is associated with Jaffa oranges and citrus crops owned by Arabs and Jews. The word home appears in pencil in the lines of a school notebook, as one practices writing at the beginning of school. Because although "home" meaning roots, the coexistence, the State of Israel and everything that has been created here is new, and is still recorded in the pages of history and is still taking shape and there are many more empty lines with an unknown future. And this is my home.