A day before my birthday that came one day prior to my leaving I went during the night to Bab-Tomah and Qamarieh quarters in the old city of Damascus, the neighbourhoods where I grew up and had my memories, I wanted to take with me some of these memories...

I had many options, I chose the thing that would connect me with Damascus the most, I chose to pick Jasmine flowers. I stole the flowers from our neighbour’s tree, I kept them in a book which I also stole from my grandfather library…

The book that my grandfather used to read to me from its stories when I was a child...

It was the first thing I placed in the suitcase. On my birthday every year, I open the book and read a story, its smell is of Jasmine now, with that I remember the most beautiful days of my childhood.

I look forward to the day when I can go back and reconnect with the neighbourhood I grew up in.