Did you ever see a fruit that went from green to rotten without ever ripening? I have. A mango, once. I bought it here in Paris for an outrageous price, I craved it so much.  I waited and waited... 2 days..... is it ripe yet? No.  I wrapped it in newspaper, to keep it from becoming brownish on the outside -- brown, the colour of rot -- and put it in the fruitbowl alongside temperate cousins. Another day... nothing, still green. Tough, solid mass of juice.  Forth day, I unwrap it... it smells wrong, the sweet scent of death.  I cut a slice off it, it is rotten inside.

Too soon, too late.

I put the cat in the oven and called it a cookie.

Rose hip