It is loaded with symbolism (peace, fertility, purification, strength, victory, reward). Mediterranean tree par excellence, eternally reborn, it presents a very hard texture, tight grain, superb polish, and golden hues veined with brown. Cabinet-makers, wood-workers, sculptors, all love it. Smells don't impregnate this wood.
Interesting fact:
cats love olive wood!
Though some possible reasons have been found, the mystery is still whole... Here are two possibilities.
• Could there be a particular appeal for the cat due to static electricity building between its skin and the ebonite in olive wood?
• A cat's sense of smell is much more highly developed than ours... Olive wood does have a singular smell. Might it be as simple as that? Perhaps cats just like its smell!
Anyhow, no one can deny that cats simply love to claw away at olive wood.