SaltWhat was the first flavor?Obvious. Milk.What is the flavor of milk?Creamy, rich, fatty… just a little hint of sweet… just a little hint of salt. It is the flavor ofwarmth, and comfort; of rest after a long hard battle; of whispers as we cry in the night. It is theflavor none of us can stretch our minds to remember, and so have no word for, which is why Ihad to use so many - thirty-eight, to be precise - to describe its singular flavor. So does milkcount?No.What was the first flavor?Easy. Nothing.What is the flavor of nothing?It is the flavor of air, of water, of our heartbeat. It’s the flavor of life coursing through our lungsas we wailed and laughed and took our first steps. It’s the flavor that was on your tongue in yourfirst memory, that passed through your throat as you spoke your first words, and that you take ina shattering breath of finally before you die, because the first is always also the last. But wait, isnothing a flavor? There is no word for it; I had to use seventy-four that time, making it worsethan the flavor of milk. Take a deep breath. A long draught of water. Is that a flavor?No.What was the first flavor?Think.What was the first thing we did? Run. Before humans had language and axes and plows we ran.Before our brains were anything to compare to the crows’ or the dolphins’ we ran, up and downthe savanna, chasing down our prey until it collapsed to the ground in exhaustion, because noone could beat Man in a marathon. We ran and we sweat, long before we ate. We licked our lipsat the sight of meat, and the meat wasn’t the first thing we tasted. Think: what was on our lips aswe stumbled, soaked, to the ground?What was the first thing we tasted? Not milk, that doesn’t count, we can’t remember. No meat,that grew our brains but first we had to grow to catch it. Not the sweet flesh of fruit, nor the crispleaves of a vegetable. And our own blood doesn’t count as we licked out wounds. No, the firstthing we tasted was dirt. Dirt on the skin of roots and insects we dug up, dirt to wash off of ourhands, dirt in our water, dirt under our skin. Dirt, soil, minerals. Think: what flavor is dirt?What were the first things we fought wars over? Not oil, because who wanted oil in thepaleolithic? Not money, not pride - those weren’t invented yet. Not game; we were too few tofight wars when wild game was still our main resource. Not women - there wouldn’t be a Helenfor thousands of years. Not freedom - slavery, or even servitude, was still unthinkable. Think:
what did we need, when the world was still empty, there were more acres than people, andmurder was paid for in sheep?Taste it, it’s in your kitchen, on your lips, in your blood, in the spoils of war. It streaked ourmothers’ faces as they birthed us, and it will trail down our loved one’s cheeks as we die.What was the first flavor?Salt.No need to explain. One word says it all.
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