Sweet Memories

The name ‘Serpentine’ comes from the perceptible association between the intrinsic texture and patterns of the stone and the characteristics of a serpent’s skin. The stone vaunts an array of colours and no two stones are exactly alike, each given a distinct appearance by the exceptional pattern of mineral inclusions with the stone. Formed around 2.6 billion years ago, serpentine stones contain quartz, chromium, manganese, copper and iron minerals. Fruit serpentine is a harder variety of serpentine, beautifully multi-coloured with deep veins of variated strata. Fruit serpentine comes from the Kwekwe area, a few hours southwest of Harare and is also referred to as Kwekwe Serpentine. Fruit Serpentine has a hardness between 4 and 5 on the Mohs Hardness Scale.