Abdulaziz Alasmari

Abdulaziz Alasmari's story

Abdulaziz grew up on the terraces of Habala, the third generation of his family to farm them. The days he hosts are made of the things he grew up around: green beans roasted and pounded the Aseeri way, a saleeg lunch in a family majlis in old Abha, music on a terrace above the Habala valley as the light goes gold, and the cloud-line trails of Jabal Sawda, where he walks at an unhurried pace and reads the landscape as he goes — the trees, the terraces, the birds. He hosts small groups on purpose: enough people for a table, few enough that everyone gets introduced. Come as his guest, and you'll see this corner of Aseer the way its people see it.