Well, it was a surprise like many other things I see along the route. This one is special though: silk!
As you might know, silk was one of the Chinese secrets in ancient times. It is said that Lei-tzu discovered silk while walking in her garden, somewhere around 2600 BC. She noticed a strange worm gorging on mulberry leaves and watched it spinning itself a golden net for several days. Then she saw it close itself and thought the worm died, until the reincarnate moth burst from its cocoon.
Toying with the cocoon and mystified of what just happened, the empress accidently dropped the cocoon in her tea. When she picked at the softened fibre, and began to unwind it, she discovered a long, glistening filament of silk. In time she became the teacher of silk-weaving and of the rearing of the mysterious worm…
One afternoon I was pedaling with Nate when we saw something we haven’t seen before. Lazy as we were, we stopped to have a closer look. We didn’t immediately recognized it… not eatable… can’t be cotton… there are some cocoons… must be silk! Wow! Silk! The old men, playing some Chinese chess next to the road were friendly and smiling. Yes, this was silk!
Something that has been priceless for ages was just lying on the same street where we were cycling! I took two hands full of silk cocoons and was just so happy and astonished that I was holding pure silk! The Chinese men were also smiling and probably astonished as well that we were so happy and taking pictures of something that they see every day…
I’m now carrying a little bit of silk with me! All the way to Istanbul!
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