El buscador de esencias

The expert traveler Dominique Roques shows us the origin and everything that has historically surrounded the production of perfumes; from the collection of incense in ancient times to the current industry. Perfumes are fascinating: familiar and mysterious at the same time, they envelop us, enliven memories, evoke refinement. This book is a journey through the vast world of natural essences -the magical and primordial component of perfumes-, whose history dates back to the origin of civilizations and whose role has been key in shaping the world, as they are the result of the encounter of territories, landscapes, soils and climates; the product of trades and customs of entrenched or passing populations. For thirty years, Roques has been traveling the planet to find extracts of flowers, seeds, resins or wood, fruits of the earth with exceptional aromas that are assembled in infinite olfactory formulas. With rigor, humanity and poetry, it takes us to meet men and women with immemorial knowledge, heirs to trades of at least thirty centuries: flower pickers in Bulgaria or India, rubber kettles in Andalusia, balsam makers in El Salvador or in Laos, patchouli or lavender growers, sandalwood planters, bergamot distillers. He also alerts us to the threats that hang over these activities, whether for political or economic reasons or due to the progressive devastation of ecosystems.