Smell is powerful.

While taking some trash out today my nose was assaulted by the garbage bins in my building. The city is currently undergoing a heatwave and the air in the dumpster area is thick.

Amongst everything that typically ends up in the trash, it smells of rotting fruit and meat. But the smell didn’t offend me. Strangely enough, as much as the smell is unpleasant, it subtly pleased me.

It smelled like parts of Southeast Asia, particularly the bigger cities.

This isn’t to say that there’s a bad smell in that part of the world, but that the odor is more common there than in the West.

I’ve spent a lot of time in that part of the world, and the pungent smell evokes an odd sense of pleasant nostalgia.

It’s not something I plan on basking in longer than necessary. Still, I find it interesting how powerful our memories of smell can be.