by Erica Jong Italians know how to call a fig a fig: fica. Mandolin-shaped fruit, feminine as seeds, amber or green and bearing large leaves to clothe our nakedness. I believe it was not an apple but a fig Lucifer gave Eve, knowing she would find a fellow feeling in this female fruit and knowing also that Adam would lose himself in the fig's fertile heart whatever the price-- God's wrath, expulsion angry angels pointing with swords to a world of woe. One bite into a ripe fig is worth worlds and worlds and worlds beyond the green of Eden. Photo Credit: Purple Figs, Photo Dictionary.