Pomegranate

"Melograno" is Italian for Pomegranate (Punica granatum).

The plant has traditionally been considered a symbol of beauty and fertility. Persephone, daughter of Ceres, the Goddess of growth and abundance, was forced to spend four months of each year in the underworld, because she had eaten four seeds of the pomegranate, when she was held captive by Pluto.

Its large scarlet flowers, red-gold fruit, and glossy green leaves have inspired countless allusions in literature and art. According to the Bible, King Solomon boasted an orchard of pomegranate trees, and when the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness, they remembered longingly the cooling pomegranates of Egypt.

The ancients say that there is a door through which a man may return to life, to love the woman to whom he gave the pomegranate. Furthermore, that as the God that ate of the seeds of the pomegranate is destined to mortality, the man that tastes them while loving and believing in love, will himself become immortal.