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It’s great to discover works of public art on your travels and the Suspended Orange in Jaffa is one of the most unusual ones you’ll ever see. Hidden among the lanes of Jaffa's old city is a large egg-shaped clay pot suspended by metal cables attached to the neighboring houses, so that it is about a meter off the ground, and growing out of the earthenware pot is an orange tree.
The Suspended Orange Tree
This installation piece was created in 1993 by Israeli artist Ran Morin and has become a symbol of the city. The tree is real and bears real oranges! Pro Tip: If you’re wondering how the orange tree survives, you can look for the well-hidden drip irrigation system.
The most obvious explanation of the installation is that it represents the oranges of Jaffa, but there are several other possible meanings associated with the floating tree.
Local legend holds that a resident planted an orange tree on municipal land but as this was forbidden by law, an official came to cut down the tree. The resident then hung the tree, suspended above the ground so that it was not touching municipal land and the officials could do nothing about it.
The stone egg represents the roots of our ancestors, or the shell that we grew from. It is suspended to show that we eventually are torn away from our roots, and drift further away from nature. The tree represents the blossoming and growing beauty of people.
It also symbolizes the Jewish people (the tree), uprooted from their land (suspended off the ground) and scattered throughout the world, but never disconnecting from Israel, and continuing to bear fruit.
Another theory is that it represents the detachment between people and nature in today’s modern world.
The artist who created the Suspended Orange Tree is Ran Morin, an Israeli artist known for incorporating full-size trees into his work. On the outskirts of Jerusalem, near Ramat Rachel Kibbutz is Morin’s Olive Columns, an installation that consists of three tall columns topped by three olive trees.
The hanging tree in Jaffa (Image source: vivali CC BY 3.0)Morin has said about the Floating Orange Tree that it shows a rooted and uprooted state while going on living, much as we do, growing into an unclear future.
After the establishment of Israel in 1948 the new country’s main income was from citrus fruit shipped from Jaffa Port. At that time Jaffa was surrounded by fields of orange groves, and the citrus smell permeated the air. The local Shamouti oranges were known for being juicy, delicious, and seedless.
But their greatest quality for traders was that they remained fresh and ripe without rotting for a long time. This made them perfect for exporting to distant countries. Around the world, people ate oranges bearing the “Jaffa” label. Pro Tip: Tel Aviv is nicknamed "The Big Orange". You can follow the Orange Trail walking routes through the city.
Israel's Oranges are the best!
In the 1970s, tragedy struck. As part of the ongoing tension between the Arabs and Jews following the Yom Kippur War, Arabs poisoned the orange groves with mercury. As a result, there were several deaths in Europe, and the Jaffa oranges lost their sterling reputation. Israel could no longer rely on agriculture as its main source of income and they started looking into other fields, eventually leading to the birth of the Start-Up Nation.
There are no more orange groves surrounding Jaffa, instead, there is the concrete jungle of Tel Aviv. But the memory of Jaffa and the famous oranges remains.
The Suspended Orange Tree can be found at 2 HaZorfim Street. From the main street of Jaffa, Yefet Street, turn down Louis Pasteur Street, then turn right onto Mazal Teomim Street, and right onto HaZorfim Street. Just a few minutes along the street (which is more like a narrow lane) and you will reach a very small courtyard where the Suspended Orange hangs. It is a public area, no need to pay, or ask permission to see it.
People gathering around the tree (Image source: deror_avi CC BY-SA 2.0)You may get lost in the labyrinth of lanes in Jaffa’s Old City, but that’s all the fun! If you’re coming from Kedumim Square, take Mazal Dli Street to Mazal Gdi Street, and follow the twists and turns of this street until you reach HaZorfim Street. This is perhaps the most popular way of reaching the Suspended Orange as it allows you to explore the lanes as you go along. It is a well-trodden route that takes you past art galleries and specialty stores. If you’re wondering about the strange names of these lanes, they are all named after the zodiac signs.
Pro Tip: This is Jaffa’s Artist’s Quarter and among the lanes surrounding the floating orange tree you’ll find many unusual art galleries.
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