a journey to Portugal

Day one: 

"The earth is blue like an orange" Paul Eluard

I remember arguing years ago about oranges. My patriotism, if it can be called so, always goes through mystomack. Obviously, the best oranges, for me, were the Moroccan ones. And last week, only when I crossed the border between Spain and Portugal for the first time, an obvious fact  stroke my mind. In arabic, we call the orange "burtuqal".

 "Portocali" in Greek, "portakal" in Turkish, the sweet orange was brought to the Mediterranean by the Portuguese in the XVIth century. As the Mediterraneans rapidly adopted the fruit as their own,  they forgot it had come from China.

Portugal, the Terra Incognita I was to discover during this weekend was from then on wrapped in a poetic haze.

I saw a village overhanging the sea which was conquered solely for the beauty of its landscape, every street was named after a writer, or a poet, and every wall had a story to tell.  I finally hugged a tree, and not just any kind of tree, I hugged a 2000 years old olive tree, imagine now, that you're embracing with all your body a 2000 years old living tree! On the next stop, walking on the beach, there was this strange anchor cemetery. There in the sand, among tall grass, dozens of anchors driven in the ground, reminiscent of all the boats that were born and died on this very shore. The wind was telling us the overwhelming history of fearless navigation toward the edge of the known world while the atlantic ocean lied still, majestic in the silver skyline. 

Day two 

 "Sometimes, when one person is missing, the whole world seems depopulated" Lamartine

I realised a desert island doesn't look at all like what I always imagined. One pictures a Caribbean island with coconut trees (well you gotta eat something) where you arrive after a shipwreck. I wonder why by the way, we keep on thinking of all the things, books, Cd's we would take to this desert island, when we know that we don'tget there on purpose but by misfortune. Anyway, the reality of a desert island is completely different..

We first had to get from Faro to Farol island by Sea Taxi. It is like a cab, but it is not yellow. And it is a boat. 

This first island is so tiny, that we crossed it in 10 mn. Then, to enjoy a better view of the sunset we walked, just like Moses did (yes we can!) through parted waters. Some of us were even so happy to achieve that, that we had the stupidest blissful smile stuck on our faces all the way toward the sun. The mole seemed pretty safe as the ocean was calm, but we saw massive pieces of  concrete that had been torn off the pier by the billows. 

"Never underestimate Poseidon's anger" I thought to myself..

By the time we had ended our promenade on water with a quick snack and beer, the night came in and with her, we made the next step to our final destination. We took another boat, and the brief crossing to the desert island was already predictive of a mysterious and enchanting night. 

A lonely lantern was swaying in the wind above our heads when we came alongside a few stairs. All around it was dark except for a few lights in the distance, and of course the tireless lighthouse beam. From upstairs, I saw the boat go off  and disappear in the dark. One person was awaiting us on the island though. 

On the path to the inland, the stars were strolling around our heads until we saw the house of the island's only inhabitant. No Robinson Crusoe, but a jovial fisherman welcomed us in his magic fishbowl. From outside, the house looked like designed in a fairy-tale. As we walked in,  it felt like stepping into the common household of Professor Sunflower, Captain Haddock and Oliveira de Figueira. Apart the basic furniture (table, chairs, sink and stove) all the rest were bizarre inventions (from luminous alarms of all sort to inhouse periscope through homemade mechanical bin opener) tinkered by our host.  His heartiness made me think he could be one of the magic grandfathers of my childhood tales. Even if I wasn't sure of that, I took good care of behaving very nicely to him.  

As we sat down to enjoy the fisherman's dinner, I was sure of one thing though: being at the right place, at the right time, with the right people. 

So now i can tell. A desert island is not boring at all , it's fun. No need to take stuff like books there. Expect to eat fish, see a million stars, but nothing else, for you never know what will happen there. And the most important: one lonely fisherman can create a whole world. Even on a desert island. 

Day three 

 "I dream. Sometimes I think that's the only right thing to do." Haruki Murakami

No need to say how the night went on with a five liter baby of red Portuguese wine and some home made Ambrosia-like nectar called Medronho. The next day we woke up (already back on the mainland) and our personal fairy took us for breakfast to the beach. We were all a bit tired but happy  in this little cafe by the sea, where time had seemed to stop and no one would bother to dust for years. There we met this joyful (and drunk) Moroccan fisherman that had just got his license to fish. 

We exchanged a few words, and by the time we refused an invitation for a drink,  yet it was time to leave. 

And so now back home, sometimes I dream of burtuqal.

The way I see it

Once upon a time,

in a faraway land amidst the Big Waters, there was a kingdom usually called the Land of Joy. People there lived in harmony and peace thanks to an exceptional repartition of powers. There was no concept of Evil or Good because humans lived in constant contact with magic.

The magic was represented by various Creatures such as witches, satyrs, trolls, naiads,fairies, wizards and other kinds of demons who were at first feared by humans for their extraordinary powers over them. Over time, however, the humans discovered their good sides; the fairies fulfilling wishes, little demons cleaning their places overnight and even witches curing their illnesses. They realized these creatures just needed attention, respect and to be believed in. They decided that they had better live together in peace rather than fight an unequal battle.

Still, the creatures would avoid humans, hiding their powers except in special cases to maintain this respectful aura of mystery around their nature.They would receive praise as well as gifts from humans and would give in return discreet touches of magic to be felt in music, colourful portraits, bewitched paintings or delightful food. In the worst cases, witches would cast a spell or demons would make a bad joke, but this was soon repaired by the fairies so that everyone lived content.

There was, though, in this Land of Joy one creature who was unhappy- the wizard called Deerg.

Deerg's sole dream was to rule the magic forces alone, and not to share them with any other Creature. If only he could gather all the magic power for himself then he would really be feared, not only by humans but also by all the creatures in the land.

Deerg was a powerful wizard and had fought long, especially against witches and satyrs. But there were far too many of these creatures for Deerg to eliminate, and besides, they would always put aside their differences to gather up against him. When he saw a fairy defending a witch (her natural enemy), he got so depressed that he didn't leave his bed for about 70 years.

One day, however, Deerg decided to think for more than five minutes instead of trying to blast any being that would appear before his eyes. He thought for 3 hours, his head was twisted with pain by so much effort but he felt he was close to the solution!

His plan needed time, but what was a hundred years compared to his immortality and the promise of absolute power?

The only way to destroy the Creatures was to destroy their ego. He knew very well how much their powers could decrease if nobody cared about them. And the only way to achieve that was to make humans indifferent to magic.

It took him another two hours to find out how he could rule the sensitivity of humans. In fact, Deerg was stupid and every single effort of his brain was felt as a knife entering his head, but obviously the years of inertia he had spent in his bed without constantly trying to rule over another by magic were bearing their fruits.

He had to put in people's minds something more important than their happy lives, something more obsessive and overwhelming. He found he could easily alter people's way of thinking by simply throwing bits of stupidity at them- greed, selfishness, suspicion and jealousy, for these were part of their nature anyway. This method would, however, be too striking for his plans and could be only be performed effectively on individuals. He needed the effect to be slow and progressive so that it wouldn't be noticed by the creatures until it was far too late for them to react.

His sick mind brought him an answer! These ridiculous humans would get trapped soon and spread the evil themselves, and happily!

Deerg started to work on his plan night and day, slowly but surely, even pretending to have accepted the state of harmony in the land and as the years passed...