Once upon a time, about 1,100 years ago, when the Moors were the wealthy conquerors of Sicily, a rich Moor merchant saw a beautiful young Sicilian woman tending her balcony garden in the in the Kalsa Arab quarter of Palermo. He was captured by her beauty and declared his love to her, which was immediately returned.
One day, the girl discovered her lover had plans to return to his native country in North Africa, where he had a wife and children. Now deflowered and dishonoured, she went mad with anger and jealousy and hatcher her revenge. On their last night together, she waited until he slept, then sneaked into the kitchen and returned to their bed with a butcher knife. She cut off his head and put it on her balcony. She planted basil seeds in the skull and soon her lush basil plant was the envy of every woman in the neighbourhood, so they began to forge colourful clay heads pots wishing to have the same magic green thumb.
These pots are still made today, known as Teste di Moro, and inspired a stunning pendant in jeweller Cassandra Goad‘s new Bella Sicilia collection.