Whether the threads that grow from your head are the darkest of wooly green, lightest of pure gold or anything in between, I know you can relate to Pocahontas and Iracema. Maybe even Desdemona too. Imaginingg again, what will be our first place?
Yeah, my first place was Jamaica. I was 3. I don’t remember anything. I just imagine from the pictures. Second was Puerto Rico. This I do remember. Almost 20 years ago I remember: Locals playing baseball with broomsticks and rubber band balls. My parents accidentally driving on the wrong side of the road. Rainforest and lime green frogs with orange webbed feet. Very dark complected people in the grocery store gracefully only speaking Spanish and no English. And of course, the three curly headed girls, glowing in the resort pool who also didn’t speak any English, but still let me swim over to play volleyball with them.
Later…
Scattered in between the domestic trips across the nation to visit to extended family were the summers of funerals.
Then…
I attended university. There, I made friends who were not born in my homeland. This inspired me to go international. ||| ||| 3 continents. 6 countries. 400+ pictures. Cultures I desired and respect. I feel in love with …
Places and our origins. The connection we have to the land [city/state/region/territory] we departed our mothers’ womb from. The birthplace that is part of our identity. The place we never chose but have to accept. There is a thin line to walk between pride and patriotism here.
Small homes on big lots. Horses in the street. I grew up in Acres Homes but was born in Houston. The City of Houston in the Lone Star State. Who desires this place? Who desires me? As my identity is beginning to sync with my DNA, I am beginning to experience this place we call Earth more vividly.
As I remember…
De mooie beweging die ik in Amsterdam zag.. and a mother’s morning commute to work, on a bike, with her child in a backpack carrier, moving at speeds of 48.3 kmh.
成田で表現された優雅な規律の展示.. the children’s school uniforms from head to toe as they visited their organic ancient ancestral museum.
The ladies in London whose accents are mesmerizing, innit?.. and a city that I regard as the density mecca of the world.
O povo adorável do Rio de Janeiro.. all thought I was a local and treated me as if I were their own.
Formas, sonidos y colores de Lima.. the pure hearted humans doing their best.
So…
When are you going to take me where you are?