The "written bush"
Even though Ramon Llull was a real historical person, there are many legends that talk about him. Born in the year 1232 in Mallorca, he was a prolific writer, philosopher, and theologist, who became the first European writer to use a folk language to write about science, instead of Latin. He wrote mostly in his mother language Catalan, but also in Arabic, Latin, and Occitan. He is one of the founding figures of Catalan literature and was very influential throughout the Christendom for centuries.
But added to the historical facts, many legends and folktales circulate about him or where he shows up, especially in his home island Mallorca.
Around the year 1274, Ramon Llull retired to the Randa mountain (in Mallorca) to meditate, where received the divine illumination to write his Ars. Also in all the area of Randa, you can find many bushes that look like this:
Photos from toponimiamallorca.net and Rafel Bauza Verd.
This is a kind of lentisk bush (Pistacia lentiscus) where the leafs have a change in pigmentation. In Mallorcan Catalan, this bush is called mata escrita, which means "written bush".
Some people say that these are the words dictated by God to Ramon Llull, which spread through nature written in a sacred Eastern alphabet.
Others tell a more mundane story: Ramon Llull used to meditate among the nature of Randa, where he used to get carried away writing. Some times, he would run out of paper, but he didn't want to stop writing his inspired words, before they got out of his head. Then, he would continue writing on the leafs around him. This happened so many times that many bushed in the area were written. When these bushes grew, the leafs would grow still with the text. Centuries later, the bushes still keep the wise man's words.
