Tasmanian Aboriginal Living Leaf Legend
The Living Leaf Legend was many times described to me by my Grandfather Marriott. He was a son of Robert who along with his other son Frank, were the landmarking first white explorers/settlers to establish in an area they called Tyenna. They also were the first track-cutters for surveyors of the Tasmanian SouthWest wilderness. They had ventured into the forbidding dense rainforest scrub west of the Florentine Valley. Here in the remote bushland they tentatively befriended two aboriginal men while trading kangaroo skins.
Grandfather often told of the gentle aboriginals describing by gestures how the clean fresh air was captured and stored in the leaves of the gum-trees. They cupped a handfull of air in one hand pretending to force the air into a leaf in the other hand. It was understood that the aboriginals believed that the bush air was clean and pure and all leaves contained this pure fresh invigorating juice of life. If two people rubbed a leaf between each others hands, it meant a happy, pure, long healthy life. To confirm this, those that had rubbed the leaf between each other’s palms should smell the eucalyptus juice in their oily wet hands and know that their wishes would come true.
This story was told over and over again and became what we children called the Tasmanian Aboriginal Living Leaf Legend.