A look at this green powder that can be found in the stalls of all the medinas of Morocco, from Marrakech to the farthest reaches of the country.
Henna is in the imagination of humanity the magic plant par excellence. Its legend has been written since the most ancient times in all the territories where it flourishes.
Its small leaves, once dried and reduced to powder, are mixed with a little water and a few other ingredients according to tradition to produce a mixture with a thousand virtues, a creamy green paste with a powerful perfume, from which emanates a dye with unequalled shades of red, yellow and orange.
In Morocco, henna has the right to all the honors
It is the ancestral marker of festive moments because its first quality is to beautify the person who adorns it.
Popular common sense reminds us of this unalterable truth in the form of a well-known saying: "Put on henna, and Allah will have mercy on you".
The origins of makeup
Attracting the Creator's mercy by expressing beauty on oneself is the secret power of this plant, so much so that the first known traces of henna date back more than 5000 years and are found on Egyptian mummies. A few millennia later, henna was rediscovered in ancient Assyria for wedding ceremonies.
Although it originated in India, the plant became part of the traditional uses of all peoples of the Muslim faith, especially since the Prophet Mohammed made it his favorite flower.
Dyeing the hair of women and men, adorning faces and hands with ephemeral tattoos, adorning nails, teeth, and even the sides of camels, henna is always there to attract the eye, whether it is the eye of the person you want to seduce or the eye of the spirits you are seeking protection from.
A plant with many benefits
It is undoubtedly the breadth of its beneficial panoply that has guaranteed henna its fame throughout the ages.
For its virtues are also medicinal when used in the form of oil, bark or seeds: not only does henna strengthen the hair and consolidate its shine, but it is also used to facilitate the healing of wounds, it soothes migraines and lowers fever, it calms burns or intestinal inflammation.
The last of the delights offered by these small discreet leaves, henna can give your skin a beautiful caramel color by way of tanning.
It is also said that the use of henna juice on the skin reduces its signs of aging and wrinkles…
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