My mum lived in a big four bedroom house in Coogee when she was at uni. She planted a liquid amber tree as a seedling. There’s a busted water main right under the tree, which the council keeps coming over to fix but it keeps bursting and the tree has thrived. It’s probably the roots of the tree that bust the pipes open. At forty years old it’s the size of an 80 year old tree. It’s the luckiest tree in the city.
I am her daughter and I live there now. I moved from Canberra to Sydney 4 years ago. The liquid amber has a sap that smells rubbery, spicy, warm and sweet like cinnamon. Agnes likes to rub the sap on herself like perfume. It’s how she revives herself. It reminds me of the spice islands in Indonesia.

SCENT

Liquid Amber Sap, frangipani, young healthy male cat, sea air, cars, melon perfume.

By

linlin kearney