Kayu Manis

Kayu manis means sweet wood. It is the bark of Cinnamomum burmannii, and most of it grows in Kerinci, in the highlands of Jambi, where smallholders strip it from their own trees and dry it into quills. It is sharper than the cinnamon of Sri Lanka, sweet with a bitter edge.

The candle is that bark with baked apple and brown sugar: a smell for the end of a wet afternoon. Each taper burns for about six hours.