Hrechka

Buckwheat or "hrechka" is one of the most common grains in Eastern Europe and, in particular, Ukraine - my home country. Apart from the literal denotation/meaning of the signifier (applying the terminology of semiotics) - food product, this culturally-specific sign may bring up at least two different associations - the currency for political corruption of electorate in the 1990s and 2000s, and an instrument for a humiliating punishment of children, when a guilty child is supposed to stand in the corner with his/her knees on a sharp-edged raw grain.