If you ever go to Morrichaq, on the Afghan side of the border with Turkmenistan, at the northernmost part of Badghis, you can visit my friend Amin Bay, an amiable farmer, whose family, women and children, also make carpets for a living. There is more than one house in the compound where he lives, one for each wife and also those of his brother who shares the place, they are rich you know, and there are also some buildings where the carpets are made, with lots of open spaces needed to make the big ones.
Also storage places for the forage, living spaces for the animals, donkeys, sheep, goats and camels, and of course a separate building for visitors, where food and tea is served. Once or twice I have been allowed to go and see the carpet weavers, the children even look familiar already, always happy or content, and once when going there with the three Anna’s, even got a glimpse of some of the wives, very beautiful these Turkmeniwomen, with those huge eyes and their colorful dresses.
But most of the time I go only to the place for visitors, and there even on my first visit I can feel a friendliness in Amin Bay that is not common to find with strangers, as he explains me how he manages his life and business, a lot of land and animals, also his travails during the war, when for a while he had to cross the border for safety reasons. Then we drink tea and break the salt, actually salted bread, meaning that now we are friends and will never hurt each other.
At home I keep a carpet from Morrichaq weaved by Amin Bay’s family, after I choose the design motive, the tree of live, taking from Persian literature and art, a suitable theme to come out of Amin Bay’s workshop, as I cherish the memory of his family and the place they live in, remembering them with fondness and even some envy for their kind of live, so different from the madness of modern civilization.
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