SERPENTINE: The Grass, The Trees, The Lake, And You

A few weeks ago while exploring the Shibakawa Building (built in 1927, renovated in 2007), I walked into the select shop RICORDO. With no intent of buying anything that day, I wandered the shop aimlessly, until my eyes stopped upon a bottle of cologne on the wooden shelf. I had been wanting to gift my love something special, and instantly fell in love with the fresh, nostalgic scent of SERPENTINE by Comme des Garçons.

The initial scent is slightly woody, but then fades off into a mix of petichor and what I remember magnolias to smell like. It has been years since I have held a magnolia in my hands and pressed the giant cool petals to my face. SERPENTINE reminds me of long hot summers in Sacramento: my grandfather waking early to hose down the driveway, the steamy smell of asphalt; me darting outside barefoot, toes stretching to pick a barely blooming magnolia from the lowest branch; my grandmother placing it in a vase in the entranceway for me; yet by that afternoon, the once pure white petals have yellowed and have begun to turn in on themselves; the fresh lemony smell I had loved that morning: 

gone.