Czeslaw Milosz, the great Polish poet of the 20th century writes in his Book of Luminous Things ‘since poetry is an expression of wondering at things, landscapes, people, their habits and mores, poetry and travel are allied.’
Better, I couldn’t have said it.
I frequently traveled in Western and Central Europe, through the immense and colorful landscapes of the Midwest of the USA, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming, but I haven’t been – just to mention it - in Africa south of the Sahara. Read the book of Kapuscinki ‘The shadow of the Sun’ and you are in Africa. Read ‘The Rings of Saturn’ from W.G. Sebald and it is as if you stroll in the near emptiness of a landscape of dunes in Suffolk ( East England), while the author opens the archives of the world for you. Or read ‘Weerwerk’ (Counter Acting) from Bert Schierbeek and the intimate landscape of corn and grasses of eastern Groningen (the Netherlands) revives.
All these mentioned authors are able to 'germinate' with the landscape as the great French painter Paul Cézanne called it. They open their mind and heart to the world and the landscape. They possess the technique and the art of relating the mind to the landscape. Then, they hear and see how the landscape opens itself and offers its gifts to the observer. This art requires a passiveness of the mind and a spontaneous way of connection to the environment. It is a matter of patience and practice.
Whether it is the reflecting ricefields of Java and Bali, the forests of Sulawesi, the shining golden Buddha temples in Thailand, the pyramids and ruins along the Ruta Maya in Yucatan, Guatemala or Honduras, the corall rifs of Bunaken ( Indonesia) or Caye Caulker (Belize), the American rain forests on the coast of the Pacific Ocean or the impenetrable mondi and its decaying mansions in the hills of Curacao ( the Caribbean) – those are all places and moments par excellence of intense sensation and experience.
Traveling is often the art of observing, reflecting and meditating. Writing is the finishing touch. That is what you will find here.
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