Rijla, or baqla—purslane in English— is a small-leafed annual succulent found growing through sidewalks and in abandoned lots pretty much all over the world. Though it may go largely unnoticed, it is a favorite of the falaheen from the Gaza district. Many remember eating purslane during the Palestinian exodus: “We would find it growing between the bushes where we hid, and for a long while it was all we survived on,” explains Um Ibrahim.

Considered a weed by most