Soapberry fragrance

(Baonghean) - March arrives with its drizzling rains, not enough to make people shiver with cold, but enough to captivate them with the lingering scents in the streets, drawing them back to a warm place. For me, there's no scent more special than that emanating from a charcoal stove, especially those with the strong aroma of pomelo peel and soapberry.

Illustrative image

Mentioning soapberry immediately brings to mind shampooing. I've known how to use shampoo since I was a child. Those were the large, flat bottles of My Hao shampoo, with a thick, dark liquid inside that people commonly called "soapberry oil." Back then, shampoo wasn't mass-produced in the variety of types and extracts of various ingredients like it is now. So, even though it was in liquid form, it was still made from soapberry, remaining true to the soapberry fruit. We kids loved playing with the soap bubbles from the shampoo. Therefore, I absolutely refused to wash my hair with soapberry water that had been soaked and dried in the sun. Although, occasionally, I would put my hand into my grandmother's basin of soapberries, gently squeezing the softened fruits to release the foam.

But I was incredibly fascinated watching my grandmother wash her hair with soapberry water. Her long, black hair, wet with water, was like a smooth silk ribbon, each ladleful of soapberry water flowing down her hair into the basin, shimmering... And even after all these years, my grandmother still maintains the habit of washing her hair with soapberry. Many times I wondered why she didn't use shampoo, which was faster and more convenient, and she just said that her hair wasn't suited to shampoo. I always thought that was just an excuse, that she simply liked soapberry. But later, when my hair became irreparably damaged by shampoo and chemicals, I returned to her with her bunches of soapberries, and only then did I understand that she couldn't give up soapberry because she loved her hair.

While soapberry used for hair washing leaves a subtle fragrance, soapberry cooked over a charcoal fire emits a particularly strong and intense aroma. Sometimes, on cold days, sitting by the charcoal fire, adding a couple of soapberries, and inhaling that scent brings a feeling of warmth and comfort.

One might think that modern life would cause the soapberry fruit to gradually fade into oblivion, especially as people now use electric heaters instead of clay pots and charcoal stoves for childbirth. But my grandmother still washes her hair with soapberry; in winter, she still lights the charcoal stove, filling it with the warm, comforting scent of soapberry… For her, it’s a habit, but for us, it’s a familiar place, a beloved spot to return to…

Ly Lam