I saw a photo of Philip Roth’s desk. It looked busy.

First were the bushels of peppers chilies waiting to be roasted. It was chili season, and [in addition to this treasure ,] heaps of shiny red, orange,purple, and green peppers were in baskets under a tent.

Eight kinds of potatoes, more varieties of the chilies, small sweet cantaloupe, tomatoes, string beans, pale lavender to dark purple eggplant–the market stalls burst with color. Okra. Stone ground flour. Hand pies. Gourmet donuts, thick enough to dunk. Sage wands wrapped in rose petals, and bunches of cosmos and stock and delphinium. Here, the photos are worth far more than the words.