Bitter-melon/Momordica charantia/Cundiamor

I am not a scientist, nor a biologist, nor a botanist, nor a doctor, nor a homeopath, and even less a sorcerer and healer. None of that I am or pretend to be. I'm just a person attracted by topics related to art, image, word, aesthetic facts, which makes use of the means available to communicate with the other.

I like the visual arts, the elements of aesthetics: line, shape, color, texture, photographic image. I have always worked with the resources that have been available to me. Then, when I publish the photograph of a plant, a flower and some fruits and I present some information about its biological, botanical and medicinal aspects, I do not intend, for some reason, that what I write is an alternative medicine treaty, nor an herbal recipe. What I intend is to show in a general and superficial way some data that allow to identify that plant, that flower or that fruit, only that and nothing else.

What I really want is to communicate and transmit to the person interested in my publications, the artistic aspects, the aesthetic characteristics of the image I share. What really interests me is to communicate and express the admiration and emotion that this image produced in me. That is my true pretension, and if some motivation I produce in those who see and read my publications, if I manage to transmit some emotion, that emotion that I experienced in front of the aesthetic fact, the objective and the purpose of the work done will have been achieved in great percentage.

In recent months I have ventured to walk with the camera in hand in search of beautiful images to share with my friends in the world, and I have been able to capture plants, trees, leaves, flowers, fruits and something more. I really liked to realize that my eye, my ability to observe the environment have been sharpened to capture precious images that other passersby do not appreciate. In one of those trips I found the famous bitter, bitter and balsamic melon, as it is known in English to the Spanish "cundeamor" or "cundiamor". And I took several photos of that small fruit that is almost wild, its leaves and flowers.

The Cundiamor, as we know it in Venezuela, the momordica charantia, is known by many names in different countries in Spanish and English with many others, it is a tropical or subtropical herbaceous climbing species that belongs to the Cucurbitaceae family. It is edible, and both the fruit and its leaves have medicinal properties. It is said to be native to Africa and Asia, where there are more than 50 species.

As I said, it is not your biological, botanical and medicinal qualities that I am interested in highlighting in this beautiful wild fruit, but its aesthetic aspects, its shape, its texture and its colors. I would also like to point out that when I was a kid I was attracted to cundeamor because I was present in my roles playing when representing a pulpero or vendor of fruit.