Dos gardenias

Two Gardenias for you 

With these I mean to say: 

I love you, I adore you, my life 

Look after them because 

They are your heart and mine. 

Two Gardenias for you 

With all the warmth of a kiss 

Like those I gave to you 

Kisses that you will never know 

In the embrace of another. 

They will live beside you 

And talk to you as I do 

And you will even believe 

that you hear them say: I love you. 

But if one late evening 

The Gardenias should die 

It´s because they know 

That you have betrayed me 

And that you love another.

I took next picture in Spain. My mum has a beautiful garden over there. 'Dos Gardenias' was made famous by Antonio Machin many years ago, and my skin turns to goosebumps when I am writing this, the light of nostalgia and memories of a lifetime when I was a child and my dad sang to me that song, among others like 'Angelitos Negros'. He loves Antonio Machin :)

Antonio Machín was a Cuban singer and musician. His father was a Spanish emigrant and his mother was from Cuba. He grew up in a very poor family, despite of the fact he had 15 brothers, several died at early ages. Machin, worked as a bricklayer from 17 to 22. One day, he was singing in the street and a priest heard him and encouraged him to sing at a party. From that day Machín became a singer. Machín's ambition was to sing opera, but this was difficult for a poor coloured Cuban at the beginning of the 20th century. Thus, he focused on singing popular music.

He was a musical globetrotter, travelling all around the world: From United States to France until the WWII. Then, he went to Barcelona, Spain, where perfomanced in a lot of music halls using the maracas. He was buried at Seville, Spain.

His maracas were alive and kicking for 40 years and Be-Bop Lashes is remembering them today:)