Hell’s Hole Almond Leaf

A leaf from the  tree who lives in the garden of Hỏa Lò (Hell’s hole) Prison in Hanoi/Vietnam, built by French colonialists to imprison, torture and execute Vietnamese revolutionaries. From 1930 to 1954 prisoners who were held in inhuman conditions “used almond bark and young leaves to cure dysentery and diarrhea, to clean wounds, almond nuts to improve health and almond branches to make penholders, pipes, flutes…By the almond tree, political prisoners could discuss the measures on fighting against the enemy’s severe confinement and barbarous repression.” Some of those who could survive and escape Hỏa Lò Prison later became senior executives of the Communist Party of Vietnam and Government of Vietnam.