Photography: Immersion/Aleksandra Yurchenko
I know very well that I’m in a privileged condition. I know it every day that I take it to the streets of this village, sometimes carried by the wind, lulled by the voices of these people with their faces always turned towards the Sea. The Jagozes (Ericeira locals) make noise when they bring their presence and I like that. It seems that they always walk with pride in their chest, without being afraid to assert themselves, and I like that.
Well, but to live in Ericeira is not to live in an idyllic village by the sea. It is rather surfing the feints that the weather makes, bringing summer in the winter and some obstacles in summer; is to endure cold and damp nights all year round, because there will be half a dozen of them, in the course of a year, that will make all the clothes count.
nothing beats this sea air that clutches us even before we set our eyes on the salty blue
It is to drop any planning of a fortnight of sunbathing in the middle of August, without pity, because those glorious winter days are won when the sky is cleared and the sun shines on that sea that releases an odor like I’ve never smelt. Never. I have never seen a sea where I could boast of having this smell. Nothing beats this sea air that clutches us even before we set our eyes on the salty blue. Maybe one day I can find a place that smells like that, the sea, but I haven’t so far.
Repetition does not fade the charm. I don’t know how, or why.
I’d rather want a cabin with the sea than a castle without it
When, in my reflections, I think that I wouldn’t like to live far from the sea, that I’d rather want a cabin with a sea than a castle without it, I also think of those who have never seen the sea. There are people who have never seen the sea, never smelt it, never dove in its waters.
But anyone who lives by the sea and is an attentive type, like me, may have the charm of observing someone who sees the sea for the first time.
this same puffing of the eternal is felt every time I see a sunset in this hypnotic land
In the case of an adult looking at the sea for the first time, the observer’s delight is even greater: when you see a grown man placing his little bathing belongings on the sand, in an excitement that is not adequate at first sight, turning to the immense sea, filling the chest with courage and moving forward, in a mixture of fear and fascination, an overwhelming sentiment at life happens. And keeps going through the blue liquid and swims! In a small frenzy, moves the arms foward. He doesn’t leave the same place. Splash his friends and let out those laughs of awe mixed with nervousness. He is a child. He just splashes. He left the chronology of his life and returned to being a child, dazzled. He saw the sea and bathed in it. For the first time. And I feel like a fake millionaire for seeing this. I saw it and kept it in my heart.
There is a trace of eternity in that moment of pure enjoyment, stripped of any convention. Such a genuine joy. And, I don’t know how, this same puffing of the eternal is felt every time I see a sunset in this hypnotic land, as if it was the first time.
Esta publicação também está disponível em | This article is also available in: Portuguese (Portugal)
