Four decades ago he was killed one afternoon, allegedly screaming at his executioner: 'Shoot, coward, you are only going to kill a man.'

And yet, his name is more inescapable than ever. Recent news reports claimed a former CIA operative planned to auction a lock of Guevara's hair, snipped before the revolutionary was buried.

In September this year, a Mexican publishing firm printed what it claimed were the contents of a notebook found on his body and locked for years in a Bolivian army vault. Titled The Green Notebook Of Che, it held no battle plans or secret codes. What it did have was a collection of his favourite poetry, mostly love poems.

Maybe the contents of that tattered book hold a key to why Che Guevara continues to be held in such reverence. Revolutionaries with a fondness for love poetry have always seemed larger than life. Maybe that is why his gaunt profile -- taken from an iconic photograph by Cuban photographer Alberto Korda -- continues to adorn everything from T-shirts to coffee mugs.

Then again, the status of some world figures can never be easily explained.

Text: Rediff News Bureau
Photograph: Che Guevara takes baseball lessons. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images