Many tried to follow him and find that land of plenty for gutta-percha and rattans, pearl shells and birds’ nests, wax and gum-dammar, but the little Flash could outsail every craft in those seas. A few of them came to grief on hidden sandbanks and coral reefs, losing their all and barely escaping with life from the cruel grip of this sunny and smiling sea; others got discouraged; and for many years the green and peaceful-looking islands guarding the entrances to the promised land kept their secret with all the merciless serenity of tropical nature.

From “Almayer’s Folly,” by Joseph Conrad

Joseph Conrad paints with words the details of a landscape and the mood that inspires on the eyewitnesses: “for many years the green and peaceful-looking islands guarding the entrances to the promised land kept their secret with all the merciless serenity of tropical nature.”   Green has always attracted me. I am not a poet, but here is a poem dedicated to this color that I wrote ten years ago:

                                                        Green

What is green?

Is it the color of a furious roaring sea,

Waters devouring rocks like a thousand lions,

A proof of its indomitable nature?

Is it the color of peace bathing our mind,

A feeling of tranquility caressing it,

A tribute to love and friendship?

Is it the lascivious color enveloping humans,

An insatiable thirst for flesh without soul

And its everlasting desire?

Is it a singing tree, full of leaves and birds,

A song to Mother Nature and its beauty,

A tree full of melodies?

Is it the bilious envy and jealousy,

Vices that erode the human soil

And encrust in the core of the  human soul?

Yes, it is all,

The forever balance of good and bad

That fills nature and man.