When Nadia and Saeed trip on her rooftop terrace, Saaed notices the lemon tree and is reminded of his parents, overwhelmed by the feeling of love.
The origins of the lemon are unknown but are thought to have first grown in northeast India, northern Burma, or China. Recent DNA research has found that all citrus fruits can be traced back to the southern foothills of the Himalayas. In earlier times, they were mainly used for ornamental purposes and distributed widely throughout the Arab world and the Mediterranean from 1000-1150. Believed to have been introduced in southern Italy during the times of Ancient Rome, lemons did not come into full culinary use until the 15th century in Europe. Both Columbus and Spanish conquistadors spread lemon seeds in the Americas. Later, Florida and California began to grow lemons for commercial cultivation in the 19th century.
Lemon juice has been a staple in secret communications throughout much of history. From the ancient Greeks to the Renaissance, lemon juice was even kept in supply during the American Revolution, the Civil War, and World Wars I & II. Yet, historians have also speculated that lemon juice treatments to treat sailors with scurvy, a disease caused by vitamin C deficiency, helped the British maintain “the coastal blockade that was essential for defeating Napoleon” (Rupp).
I found it quite telling that Nadia has a lemon tree on her roof. Given its cultural symbolism for secret, lemons serve as a motif for the types of visibility Nadia experiences as a woman who chooses to hide in a country that does not feel safe. When she and Saeed sit on the roof, they both shed their robes or protection to experience vulnerabilities and end up having their first kiss in the morning, where someone could possibly see.
The connection you draw between the lemon as a symbol for secrecy and Nadia’s own visibility is so profound. In the privacy of her own apartment with the lemon tree, Nadia finds security in her independence, and it’s interesting how the lemon tree is one of the few things she chooses to save when she collects her belongings. I wonder what it means when they fail to keep the lemon tree alive at Saeed’s house during the height of the war’s tension, when Saeed and Nadia are forced to be in a vulnerable situation.