fuzzy, soft, small, pink, delicate, very beautiful and easy to miss. stede found ed's heart. it's a small little thing. but stede is trying to show off how incredible and special of a heart it is.
ed and lucius (lucius who represents stedes sensitivities) aren't impressed.
it's not even the point of the trip, they just found it on accident.
and after ed thinking it's kinda cool, he fights a bug and has an emotional fit. but stede holds the little bug(heart) steady! ed checks it out, but doesn't get it back so that means stede is holding ed's little delicate sensitivities and his little heart (so tiny it can only fit one person inside it).
they move on and find the treasure they've been looking for, burried under the roots of jim's dead's family tree. it's just a rock :(
but ed takes it sees something more in it, he pours water on it (i think ed represents the sea/water so it's like he's literally pouring himself on his heart) and he sees and tells everyone there's something more to this rock. the old tree(stede and his family) has some fruit to give after all. a petrified orange.
(stede also represents the land so hes perhaps washing stede off his heart and washing him with his essence its the fruit of stedes land like stedes heart but only love and ed could figure out what it really is)
in spite fear, and anxiety stede's heart grew stronger. while the opposite effect took place with ed's heart, it probably grew weaker!
but stede doesn't want to give it to jim or anyone and he keeps it for himself, he won't give it to ed until s2.
stede's heart is strong, once its cut in two it shows the glistening gems formed inside. so once he's able to give half his heart to his kids and half his heart to ed he is able to see his heart's full beauty. the beauty wasn't in keeping the petrified orange it was in sharing it with the ones he loves the most. :-)
