The Cactus Tree and the Pink Flower

51 Shapes of Nits: The 34th shape are the Portraits of Girls

On a Sunday morning, a bus is stopping, at the espresso bar. Christine is stepping out and enters the bar where she meets some of her friends of the Nits world: the espresso girl of course, the strawberry girl, the chameleon girl and a girl who just happened to buy a hat downtown … brown she said. I wonder, said Christine, why did you choose a brown hat? – Well, Flavia replied, I wanted it to match the brown shoes of the girl who is walking down the street, in my favourite scene of “Two Skaters”, the moment when it starts to snow. – I always wear brown on Mondays!, the chameleon girl laughed.

These are a few of the female figures that populate the songs of Nits. Intriguing girls, all of them. There are many more appearances of female characters in Henk Hofstede’s lyrics and all of them share this enigmatic presence that lifts the universe of Nits up into some sort of sibylline, mysterious sensing of the world we live in and yet these girls are often just pictured in familiar settings, but the way in which Henk Hofstede situates them and makes them come to life through the music that guides their movements and through the words he chooses, is somehow unique. Quite often a “she” takes shape in the songs without there being any clue of who she is; Henk Hofstede does not often write about a “she” as a love interest, but the female figures play an important part in the sensitive development of his lyrical universe. The world of these girls is the reign of the senses, the reign of a dreamlike imagination and an innocent sensuality. Theirs is a world of light and skies, of water, snowflakes and ice, of trees and leaves, of fruit and flowers, of colours and tastes and smells, birds and butterflies. As the title of the song dedicated to Christine – “Christine’s World” – might suggest, these women and girls have a very peculiar touch with the world, a very delicate way of moving through the musical artistry that Nits created for them.

The espresso girl, the strawberry girl and the chameleon girl aren’t sisters – as far as I know – but there are quite a few sisters that brighten up the world of Nits. It’s just wonderful to see how these girls and women live in the most beautiful poetic sceneries of the lyrics of Henk Hofstede. They are the unsung heroines of Henk Hofstede’s sensiblilty. Sisters are perhaps the lyricist’s preferred relational form in which to write about women or girls: the lyricist created quite a number of sister figures for the protagonists of the songs. There is a girlfriend once or twice, but the sister figure is far more prominent in Hofstede’s lyrics. It seems to me that first of all those sister characters go well with the atmosphere of childhood that wades through the work of Nits and of course they once more accentuate the family-feeling that we get when listening to the music of Nits: it is not so much an amorous world of flirtation or the discovery or pursuit of sexual love that we encounter along with the female presence in the Nits songs; we get more of a sense of entering a family circle or a close-knit world of characters who are friends and could figure in adventure books for young people or as the protagonists of a novel. Or they could be the figures painted on canvas in everyday scenes or in more surreal portraits where you see them with some of their favourite accessories or in settings that their lyricist so lovingly created for them, along riversides, in a more domestic scene or along a city street. The Nits characters are explorers of something else, something different, I’d say they are looking for the world and its idiosyncrasies, its marvels and surprises, its many wonders.

The female figures are some of Henk Hofstede’s closest alliances in portraying a world of enigmatic beauty. And along with this sense of mystery and beauty I get this image of transparency, a crystalline poetic wording in which the world surrenders itself so very willingly to the magical touch of the words of Henk Hofstede. The world that Henk Hofstede created in his lyrics is not a male world, not even predominantly male; I for one have always felt very much at home in the lyrical world he shaped and that is quite unusual for me since I have very often great difficulty in reading male-authored novels. I tend to not get through them. I so much prefer to read novels written by women, I just can’t help it and listening to the words sung by Hofstede I feel that I am in a world of great delicacy and tenderness which in a way reach beyond sexual difference and identity, while nevertheless keeping and stating the “difference” in a most beautiful way – a very unusual thing to say, but I can’t explain it any other way. You can sense the difference in the most subtle way possible and that is one of the things I love so much about the world that Nits created in their work. Like a true novelist Henk Hofstede knows flawlessly how to take on a feminine perspective in his lyrics. But in his approach of female characters he always makes sure that the mystery remains…

But the Nits girls and women are not always darlings. One of the very first female characters that got her own song was a woman cactus nonetheless. The cactus symbol appears a few times in the lyrics, often in the company of Joni Mitchell whose song “The Cactus Tree” sings the freedom of a woman in her relationship with men. You cannot but have the feeling that in Hofstede’s world girls have certainly gained a personality very much their own, a strong will coupled with a magical sense of imagination and a deep rootedness in nature’s elements. There is certainly a feeling and idea of this “otherness” of the female in his lyrics and I don’t mean this in Simone De Beauvoir’s pejorative sense of the term “other” as signifying “second sex”, but more as a difference that is undeniably there. The distance he usually observes when writing about women couldn’ t be a clearer mark of this awareness which his lyrics often display. On the “Wool” album that overflows with delightful female protagonists, the song “Jazz Bon Temps” – a favourite of mine – stages Bellatrix – whose name means “female warrior” and signifies a big star too – and the wonderful “Iceland belle” – I love this verse. Henk Hofstede sings about Joni’s blue eyes, in which he can see open windows. In her sad eyes he sees a door, a room , a wall … Meanwhile the protagonist is checking out of the “Cactus Tree” Motel … “Jazz Bon Temps” has this wonderful free sense of womanhood flowing through it. Such a delicate, musical tribute to the female presence in it. I adore the song! With Bellatrix and the Iceland Belle. “Love and hate – Fish and bait – It’s all there, It’s all there”. “Am I fish or bait” the lyricist wonders when the strawberry girl takes him to her kitchen …

And then there is of course the “Ice Princess” – who once was made of wood and water -, yet another female presence associated with nature elements. She is probably responsible for the words of the song “Why is my heart so cold”. And on the album dA dA dA a girl brings lots of sorrow with her while the male character sings “her eyes are gonna burn me down”. The KNOT song “Music Box With Ballerina” centres around a girl so beautiful and mean, she is like a flower in a forest eating flying insects… There is a silver hairpin – amongst other sharp objects – and a Stella McCartney yellow submarine bag … some lovely female attributes … Such mouth-watering poems really about these fiery, icy cactus girls.

The boy in a tree – together with the ice princess and perhaps some sleeping beauties – is in the company of a few sister figures on GIANT NORMAL DWARF. They are part of the discovery team that is on an explorative mission of a magical world that houses radio shoes and something called “the infinite shoeblack”. And the sweet “Ivory Boy” ’s sister accompanies him to concerts together with a girl who looked like Lili Marlene – such a tremendously endearing brother-and-sister song if ever there was one. The sisters, they too, surrender themselves to the poetic world that Henk Hofstede is shaping for them. Like in the NEON song where “Four girls are sleeping – In a green Peugeot 504” – maybe they are sisters too? Lina Bo Bardi is sleeping in the Corbusier chair in the glass house that she built. The image created in this verse is so typical of the see-through and clear lyrical world of Nits and yet this clarity comes with a soft shimmer of a misty curtain of the innocent and tender enigma of world that Nits shape over and over again.There is surrender and then on the other hand there’s this “otherness” which will persist throughout the work of Nits. Paint me a portrait of Bellatrix.

Some of the more prominent sister songs are of course “Three Sisters” and “Two Sisters. Both songs are situated in a somewhat fearful environment: the two sisters escaping in their blue canoe in war time; the three sisters lost in the Amsterdam Zoo of Artis, looking for their parents. Frightened by the world. There’s often this endearing unity of sisters (or brothers – siblings – maybe somewhat odd given the fact that the lyricist himself is an only child) facing the world. Sisterhood feels like a sort of protection in an often hostile world, like a jacket with a capuchin protecting us from the rain.

Women and girls surround the lyricist in real life – his mother, wife and three daughters … – and it shows almost in every aspect of the Nits world. Even in the music I’d dare to argue.

So let’s end this quest of femininity in the work of Nits with this warm nest of a song where Henk Hofstede brings to the fore two of his muses so I presume, Joni Mitchell and Georgia O’Keeffe, because yes, let us not forget the female artists that pop up in the Nits lyrics from time to time. I’m referring of course to “The Ghost Ranch” an absolute stunner of a song – my third favourite on my Nitslist. The sultry guitar play reminds me of a visit once to New Mexico and of the landscape of deserts, cacti and pueblos. It’s the song of New York and New Mexico, the song of the ice and the fire. It’s the song of the cactus tree and the pink flower.

In the wonderful video of the song – in what looks like a Spanish setting – Henk Hofstede dances around wearing a skirt or a dress impersonating his characters in a subtle fluidity, honouring both notions of identity and difference.

When I was a young girl – I was walking through a wood – Picking up the flowers – When I was young.

Later on in a fable song of nature called “The Tree”, Henk Hofstede will sing, ever so discreetly, about the woman who is the love of his life. Paint me a portrait of love.

The Ting song “Christine’s World” refers to a painting by American artist Andrew Wyeth called “Christina’s World”. The girl portrayed – Christina Olson – was unable to walk. The painter had a lifelong fascination and admiration for this disabled woman who showed incredible strength and determination to make the best of her life. I felt that the enigmatic bond between the painter and his inspirational model could be a nice starting point for this reflection on the portrayal of women and girls in the work of Nits. So in my text Christina gets to meet some of these Nits women and girls …

Joke Roelandt, May 2025