First Tobacco Leaf

(Cigar Aficionado) The first tobacco leaf of the 2010-2011 Cuban tobacco harvest was picked today, and tonight it is hanging in a curing barn. It wasn’t just any leaf.
The first “libra de pie,” the bottom priming of the tobacco plant, came from the Robaina plantation in San Luis, the finca Cuchillas de la Barbacoa. In the wake of the death of the plantation’s patriarch Alejandro Robaina last spring, his grandson, Hirochi, is now in charge of production. ... “I have a favor to ask,” Hirochi said to us. “Please let the world know the Robaina tradition continues.” Continued

Pictured: Leaves of tobacco in a field near Warehouse Point, Connecticut, Jack Delano, 1940 (Library of Congress).