The island

Abstract

Life has two sides, positive and negative. Only the island has many sides. Past, present, future, permeated the green waters of Guanabara Bay. Every day the boats cross the pier, feet stuck in the thick sand of the beach, advancing towards the sea. In the blue of the houses, in the walls of the streets, the same old mailboxes waiting for news that will never come. Amid the continuous sound of the radio, life passes, in the slow movement of the tricycles parked here and here. In the green of the corners, which persists before time, in the old fisherman's net, empty every day. At the end of the corner, the ferry continues, depositing people and things in the middle of the square, always one day more tired. People who wait for the vessel to dock look inward, chewing on their own thoughts. And the smooth surface of the water hides secrets that no one sees, worried that it is time for the soap opera. Meanwhile, the popcorn vendor awaits tourists who have not arrived. And everything continues slowly, in its daily show, of a warm summer of every day, of women sitting on the sidewalks and of the pleasant conversation of the early evening, at the time of serving the beans. Meanwhile, on the continent, another ferry departs and the island awaits. Time, clock, salt water that invent a new time to come and go. Young people who cross not to return. And the same images preserved in the memory of the old. There is still a note from the island that photographs, which are increasingly rare, cannot be captured. It resists in the chest of those who weave the networks of the lives of everyone who lives there, at the bottom of the bay, on the island of Paquetá.