#this went from a history (?) lecture to ghost story so fast lmao

[ktaebwi]

The Story of Smeraldo - English Translation

Source: Flower Smeraldo / blog created by Bighit, all information are fictional KRN - ENG translation: ktaebwi / Naver Blog link

1. [The 1st Story] The fateful meeting with ‘Smeraldo’, prologue story 2. [The 2nd Story] Introducing ‘Flower Smeraldo’ 3. [The 3rd Story] How was ‘Smeraldo’ discovered? 4. [The 4th Story] The legend of ‘Smeraldo’ 5. [The 5th Story] ‘Ashbless Cards’ 6. [The 6th Story] ‘Madam Lenormand’ and ‘The Flower Card’ 7. [The 7th Story] ‘The truth that couldn’t be told’

[The 1st Story] The fateful meeting with ‘Smeraldo’, prologue story

Hello. I’m florist ‘Testesso’.

The reason I opened this blog is to introduce about a kind of flower called ‘Smeraldo’. I’m currently preparing to open my flower shop specialized in Smeraldo in mid September.

Some may think this blog is just for promoting my shop, but I think that my encounter with Smeraldo isn’t just a mere business.

My first string of fate with Smeraldo dates back to 5 years ago. I was studying abroad in North Dakota in Central North America then, and I decided to travel to Virginia to participate in hosted by American Florist Academy. It took more than 5 hours to go from North Dakota to Virginia by plan, and from my dorm to the academy venue took more than 7 hours.

(This is our ‘Smeraldo Academy’ specialized in researching about Smeraldo) *Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/The-Smeraldo-Academy-1372227712830663/

But after that long journey, what I discovered at the event venue was an ‘Origins of Playing Cards’ banner. had already ended the week before and at that time, the American Playing Cards Academy was hosting an event there. I miswrote the date in my diary. At that time, I was flustered and dumbfounded, but looking back, I think it was all fate. I was so tired that I didn’t have the strength to go somewhere else, so I just sat there and attended the lecture. Luckily it was an interesting lecture and the part about a flower fascinated me the most, probably because I work as a florist. You probably have guessed it already, that flower was… ‘Smeraldo’.

As you can see from the photo, Smeraldo has a warm atmosphere. Romantic petal shape with a profound and mysterious color, don’t you feel like there’s a sad story behind it?

That’s right. Smeraldo is a flower with a heartrending story. You can get to know this story through its flower language, “non potevo dire la verità”, meaning “the truth that couldn’t be told” in Italian. Looking at its meaning, you can figure out it’s a story about love, about a tragic love, right?

From now on, I will slowly reveal the story about Smeraldo and playing cards through this blog.

[The 2nd Story] Introducing ‘Flower Smeraldo’

Many people think of ‘flowers’ as something for special days. Before I became a florist, I had the same thought. But a teacher who used to teach me in America said this. “It is not that we need flowers for special days, the existance of flowers makes the days special”. When I determined to bring Smeraldo to Korean, those words became my strength. ‘Even if it’s not well-known, I hope they can feel happiness from having a Smeraldo…’ With that wish in my mind, I decided to open my Smeraldo-specialized shop, ‘Flower Smeraldo’, this September.

▲This is the truck that will be used to deliver Smeraldos to you.

▲ View of ‘Flower Smeraldo’ interior construction for upcoming opening in September

The interior of ‘Flower Smeraldo’ will be minimalist with white as the theme color to highlight the beauty of Smeraldo. Fresh Smeraldos will be arranged on the display window differently according to the atmosphere each day, as a present of momentary happiness in daily life for passersby. (I’m, simple right….?)

The shop is still in preparation for opening, but in case you need it, I offer delivery service to some areas. But please understand that the quantity will be limited. Smeraldos can express various atmospheres, so it’s the most important to tell me which kind of atmosphere you want depending on the receiver and the situation. Since immediate supply and demand for Smeraldos can be unavailable, it will take a week on average, in case companion flowers need to be imported or searched for, please order at least 2 weeks ahead. (I will of course try my best to find the most suitable fillers and greens in time.)

The weather is stifling every day. Since Smeraldos are grown in the farms of northern Italy, an area with extreme annual range of temperature, and brought to Korea, to prevent the flowers from withering, it will be treated within the allowed range to not affect the design. That way, Smeraldo can stay fresh and beautiful.

For further inquiries, please refer to the below email. Thank you! flowersmeraldo@gmail.com

[The 3rd Story] How was ‘Smeraldo’ discovered?

Today I’ll tell you how ‘Smeraldo’, once considered ‘The flower of legend’, can come into the world.

Actually 5 years ago, when I heard the story at the event of Playing Cards Academy, it had already been established that Smeraldo only appears in legend. (I will post about the connection between playing cards and Smeraldo later.) But one summer day in 2013, a shocking news came to me. I still remember that day vividly. I was washing my face after waking up when the phone call came. It was from a friend whom I met at the Playing Cards event.

We attended the lecture together by accident and were fascinated by Smeraldo, so after that we kept in touch. I lived in North Dakota while she lived in San Francisco, but we all liked the same thing, so distance wasn’t a problem. Back to the subject, what she told me was that apparently Smeraldo was discovered in real life. I couldn’t say anything for a while. We screamed with each other on the phone.

The above photo was when Smeraldo was first discovered. Even now, my heart still flutters when seeing this photo.

At that time, ‘amtest(amare_0)’ was a famous traveler on Instagram, they posted a photo of the flowers they discovered by accident while traveling to northern Italy. ‘amtest(amare_0)’ actually didn’t know about Smeraldo, they only thought that it was some unique and beautiful flowers they came across while traveling. But some people on Instagram saw that photo and pointed out the similarity with Smeraldo, and the story spread like wildfire. Local historians revealed a decisive information, the old name of the place where the flowers were discovered was ‘La Città di smeraldo’.

‘La Città di smeraldo’ in Italian means ‘the city of Smeraldo’. According to historians, the place was a flourishing village during medieval times, but after the Black Death swept through, it was abandoned and became a forest like today. After that, many experts from florist academies and biology academies from all over the world were sent to the field and they publicly announced that the flowers were believed to be Smeraldo.

At that time, Smeraldo created a wild sensation in Europe and America. Every country attempted to grow their own Smeraldo, but Smeraldo can only bloom in ‘the city of Smeraldo’, no one could succeed in growing it in other areas. There were various reasons for that but nothing has been revealed yet. Even now, Smeraldos still can only be grown in the farms of northern Italy and exported to Europe, America and a part of Asia in small quantity. Are you curious how great of a flower Smeraldo is that it created a ‘wild’ sensation?

I will tell you the story of Smeraldo in the next post.

[The 4th Story] The legend of ‘Smeraldo’

Do you think you are beautiful? I once saw an experiment where people were asked to choose which door they would pass, the door with ‘I am beautiful’ on it or the door with ‘I am not beautiful’. If you were them, what would you choose? The reason I bring up this story, is to start the story of Smeraldo about love.

The story of Smeraldo started in a rural village in northern Italy, around the 15th~16th century. In the village called ‘La Città di smeraldo’, there was a small secluded castle. In that place lived a man with grotesque appearance.

▲ The village in northern Italy that is believed to be ‘La Città di smeraldo’.

There wasn’t anything exactly known about the man. ‘He was the love child of a duke from a powerful family in Florence, the duke fell in love with the daughter of the gardener and gave birth to a love child, the mother of the man passed away from excessive bleeding after giving birth to the man, the wife and children of the duke wanted to kill the man, so the duke sent the man away to let him escape.’ There was a lot of rumors but no truth was revealed. The man hid himself in the old castle, lonely. Maybe it was because of the hatred and beratement that he received from birth and when growing up that he didn’t open his heart to anyone, he got angry and hid if someone tried to approach him. His only joy was growing flowers in his garden. But one day, a girl appeared near the man’s castle. The girl in ragged clothes lifted her heels, jumped over the garden fence and stole the flowers. The man was mad as a hornet at first, he spent the whole night to guard the garden. But in his brief moment of sleepiness, the girl picked flowers again and ran away. It happened for several days, until one night the man pretended to fall asleep and watched the girl go. He was curious. Without realizing it, the man waited for the girl, and one day he followed her. He covered himself with a cloak and after following here the man discovered, the poor and weak girl was selling flowers for a living. The man wanted to help the girl. He wanted to teach her every method of growing flowers he knew, he wanted to teach her how to grow beautiful flowers. But he couldn’t come forward to the girl. She would be scared of him, she wouldn’t love his grotesque appearance. In the end, the only thing he could do was to grow and take care of the flowers so she could keep coming to his garden. The man decided to make a flower out of this world. He started to make a flower that the girl could sell at an expensive price. The man shut himself in the castle to make the flower. After countless attempts, the man made a flower that never existed in the world, and filled his garden with that flower. But the girl was nowhere to be seen. No matter how much he waited, the girl wouldn’t come to his garden. The man grew concerned and went to the village with his face covered. But the girl was already dead.

This was the story of Smeraldo. No one knows if this is a real story or just a story created by someone while watching the flower, but every time I see Smeraldo, this story comes to my mind and bring many thoughts. What if the man gathered his courage, showed his face and revealed the truth? The girl could be scared and run away, or she could get mad. Courage is not an easy thing.

Actually, I had gone through a similar experience too. It was the friend I met at the Playing Cards Academy whom I mentioned at the previous post. I had a crush on that friend. She was bright, cheerful and full of light. After hearing about Smeraldo being discovered, we talked about flowers and promised to go to ‘La Città de smeraldo’ together. It didn’t seem like she had nothing for me, because she told me let’s go together too. I still sometimes think of what happened then. Her face sparkling with curiosity and anticipation, scuttling away carrying big backpack, arranging the meeting, booking plane tickets and discussing the schedule with excitement.

They were moments that I will never be able to forget. A wound that no time can heal.

[The 5th Story] ‘Ashbless Cards’

I have told the story of Smeraldo in previous posts. Do you still remember the place where I first got to know about Smeraldo, the Playing Cards Academy? Are you curious about the connection between Smeraldo and playing cards? Today I’ll talk about a figure related to cards, William Ashbless.

There isn’t much known about Ashbless, aside from that he was an Italian nobleman and a poet. Ashbless was also an expert on playing cards, which started to gain popularity in Europe in the 16th century. He made playing cards for the palace and salons of noblewomen, but they said he got sick due to being too immersed in his work.

It was when he went to the countryside for a change of air. While searching for hot spring and places with fresh air to recover his health, Ashbless came across Smeraldo. At the edge of a rural village where only ruins of a castle were left, a flower with beauty beyond this world was blossoming. He asked for the name of the flower but no one in the village knew. Then he learned of the love story about the flower from an old woman. You probably figured it out from how he was immersed in playing cards, Ashbless was a romantic person. The love story of the ugly man and the poor girl moved his heart. Ashbless named the flower and created its flower language there. The flower was named ‘Smeraldo’ after the name of the village, ‘La Città di smeraldo’, and its flower language is ‘the truth that couldn’t be told (non potevo dire la verità)’. After returning to his place, he made ‘the Flower Card’ inspired by Smeraldo and included it in ‘Ashbless Cards’.

Its upright meanings are ‘fruition’, ‘bloom’ and its reversed meanings are ‘fall’, ‘end’ and ‘new start’.

▲ Ashbless Card

It was said that Ashbless Cards were a sensation in Europe. But not many remember it now. The reason was that the Ashbless family lost their power in the struggle between nobles, thus received a horrendous consequence of being erased from the history. Along with that, Ashbless Card and the story of Smeraldo flower were forgotten too.

But like every beautiful legend, there was one thing, one thing that carries this whole story, that wasn’t erased and still remained. The love story and the story of Ashbless were all revived again. I will talk about this story in the next post.

[The 6th Story] ‘Madam Lenormand’ and ‘The Flower Card’

There is a painting called by French artist Jean-Francois Rolland.

Madame Lenormand was said to be a French astrologer treasured by Napoleon’s wife, Queen Joséphine. Before she became the astrologer for Queen Joséphine, she was already famous for tarot readings for noblewomen and had amassed a significant fortune. Her ‘Lenormand Oracle Card’ is known for influencing a considerable number of card decks. Even now, the oracle card deck is still being sold on famous tarot card sites. 

▲ Painting of Madame Lenormand in The Court of Napoleon (Derby and Jackson, New York 1858). Source: Wiki Commons

As Madame Lenormand was a famous astrologer, there are many paintings of her holding or reading the cards. The above painting is one of them too. But what we need to focus on here is not the above painting but the painting called . Painted by French artist Jean-Francois Rolland, was an oil painting with delicate touch and a peculiar lyrical atmosphere, but it was lost in a fire at the collector’s mansion. The mansion’s owner was famous for owning documents and paintings showcasing the high society of Napoleonic era, so he immediately searched for the paintings at the scene of the fire and restored them. A lot of paintings and documents were restored but unfortunately, only the card part of was able to be saved. That part was the painting I introduced in the previous post. The card with ‘The Flower’ written on it, as you may notice, is one of the cards in Ashbless Cards made based on Smeraldo. This is the only trace left of Smeraldo and Ashbless.

[The 7th Story] ‘The truth that couldn’t be told’

Actually my family isn’t that wealthy. I had a difficult time studying abroad in America. I was a foreigner and wasn’t fluent at English. I couldn’t present a future.

The day we promised to travel together to Italy, I was waiting for my friend at the airport when I saw outside the glass door, she was getting down from the bus with a handsome cool guy. I immediately hid myself. Why did I do that… I don’t know too.. I just instinctively hid myself, turned around and walked away. I was like, ‘That’s right. There’s no way the two of us would travel to Italy. To her I’m just a pitiful foreigner who knows nothing.’

She called but I didn’t pick up. I just blankly looked at myself in the airport bathroom’s mirror. We booked the flight together so she had got to be somewhere in the plane, but I didn’t look for her. I just hoped. Hoped that she would look around the plane and come to find me. But even after the plane flied across the Atlantic, over the sky of Italy and landed at the airport… No one came to find me.

▲ Photos I took at San Francisco International Airport in America while waiting for her ​ ‘La Città di smeraldo’ was both a painful and happy memory to me. The Smeraldo flower was so beautiful that I cried. And that night, something weird happened. I was sleeping at a homestay when I was waken up by a strange noise. My bed was under the window, but I kept hearing a sound like someone was knocking the window. It was a two-floor room and the outside was quiet. It was past midnight, the curtains were drawn so I couldn’t see outside.

I didn’t feel scared, it was just weird. I thought about waking up and open the window to see who was knocking the second floor’s window, but it stopped. I figured it was the leaves knocking to the window by the wind and forced myself to go back to sleep, but truthfully I couldn’t sleep well. I kept listening to that sound and lied down quietly like I was forcefully enduring something. ​ It was around noon the next day when I received a call from that friend. No, it wasn’t a call from her. He said he was her brother. My friend was following someone in a rush at the airport when she got into an accident, she started to have trouble breathing from around past midnight yesterday, and went to the other world. ​ Before leaving the dorm, I opened the window next to my bed. The sun was shining through and far away was Smeraldos. I watched the flowers, sat in the sun and felt the wind blowing by. It was just for a moment but I felt like she was standing by the window and watching the Smeraldos side by side with me.

▲ A painful and happy memory, the beautiful view of ‘La Città di smeraldo’ 

On the way from the airport to my house after coming back to America, I received the news that what I had been dreaming of for a long time had come true. My Smeraldo flower shop in Korea was approved by The Smeraldo Academy. As Smeraldo is a rare species, the Academy controls overseas sales very strictly, so for later, I registered at the association and was approved. After that… 3 years have passed until the opening of ‘Flower Smeraldo’ in Korea, but I still think of the news from the Academy as the last thing my friend left before she went away.

She told me ‘the truth that couldn’t be told (non potevo dire la verità)’ and went to the other world. This is the string of fate between me and Smeraldo I mentioned in the first post.