Ellena is proud to be an illusionist. “Picasso said, ‘Art is a lie that tells the truth,' ” he told me. “That's perfume for me. I lie. I create an illusion that is actually stronger than reality. Sketch a tree: it's completely false, yet everyone understands it.” The point of Un Jardin sur le Nil, he said, was not to reproduce the scent of a green mango but, rather, to create a fantasy version of green mango. - from The Scent of the Nile, a profile of perfumer Jean Claude-Ellena via The New Yorker