Silkworms - the little workers of Fez

It’s a craze every year. All over the medina you’ll see boxes of small grey silkworms being fattened up on layers of mulberry leaves. Now there are boxes of yellow cocoons too. The View from Fez spotted these fine specimens half way down Tala’a Sghira this week. But it’s not just children collecting the voracious little worms. Lumen Reports:

Travelling by taxi past the Baladiya’s office the other day, we saw grown men stripping a mulberry tree of its leaves. So while there are plenty of carts full of pale green or black mulberries for sale, the leaves are being collected all over the city to feed these hungry pets. And there are plenty of mulberry trees … hard little unripe fruits are scattered across the table at Thami’s restaurant, there’s a magnificent old tree by the fountain in Derb Jama’a El Hamiya … you can find them everywhere.


But what becomes of the silkworms? Will there be a cloud of white moths over Fez when they all emerge from their cocoons? Are the cocoons sold and silk spun to embroider rich caftans? Or maybe there’ll be a forgotten shoebox full of brittle, dusty cocoons under every child’s bed …

Words: Lumen
Photographs: Sandy McCutcheon


Tags: Moroccan Morocco Fes, Maghreb news