Captain Edward Zellem has served as a United States Navy officer for 29 years. A trained Dari speaker, he worked side-by-side with Afghans every day for a year and a half in Kabul and Kandahar, including a year inside Afghanistan's Presidential Palace. While in Afghanistan he collected and used Dari Proverbs every day in his professional life, in the streets and back alleys of Kabul, and in other parts of the country. He became fascinated by the colorfulness and cultural relevancy of Dari Proverbs, and began collecting, translating and transliterating them into English. After art students at a Kabul high school created illustrations, his collection became "Zarbul Masalha: 151 Afghan Dari Proverbs" (published in May 2012) and now its full-color companion volume for young readers, "Afghan Proverbs Illustrated."