Pascal Rouet ‘Habana Cuba’ — photography
‘The key is the aroma. The aroma of fields where green tobacco matures, the aroma of just picked, drying leaves, or of leaves being prepared in The House of Tobacco, a place that might be referred as The House of Time or as The Temple of God, the aroma of leaves that have acquired that unique slightly soft texture that fills and impregnates the air with sweet and acid smells, the aroma of fresh, hand-twisted tobacco, tobacco twisted by hands that have assembled the breva layer-by-layer, by tobacco-skinned hands that smell of tobacco, the always surprising first puff, the mature aroma of ripe sap, the aroma of Cuba itself, the smoke of tobacco that manages to impregnate all conversation or quite simply one's own being.
Indeed, his ability to transmit aromas is the essence of Pascal Rouet's photographic essay, aptly titled, Cuba. Even the faces of people seem to emit the aroma of tobacco, faces that strongly differentiate the smooth ‘breva’ skin with the rough skin of everyday life. […]’
Fragment of An Essay on Aromas Reinaldo Montero — Preface from the catalogue Habana Cuba