Looking at a curly, twirly mint and cream candy on a polished brown table, I wish I liked the flavor. It looks like the perfectly rounded mouth of a pot that suddenly froze while the candy was being stirred. Cleverly curving candy contours. Neem-green lines lying lazy and liquid on a creamy white bed of sugar. Plump, round edges like a ceramic-finished pot glistening under the blue tube-light. Crunchy water-hyacinth in a tiny, sugar-sweet pond of ice…

He gingerly picks up my little pond, absent-mindedly smells it and pops it in his mouth.
“You’ve been looking at it for too long.”