The first shoots of barley are starting to appear.
The fields that were sown during the autumn period are, little by little, giving way to February.
“Look at how green they are!” – the native awwara exclaimed when, with little encouragement, he recounted to me with passion how he felt seeing the land bear fruit – the ground fertile, like a woman.
I listened at his side with the same passion.
Look at that star. Can you see it? It is already dead and even now it is moving away from us, but it is always present.
It is Magné, the mother – the one that sustains the universe.
The creator.
I looked attentively as the star signalled to me and felt a sense of resolve stir inside.
One day – the awwara continued – Canopy, as you will come to know her, exploded and gave way to the four elements that make up our world.
She is what we see here. She is this fertile ground. But also we breathe her in the air, we heat ourselves with the fire that she created and quench our thirst with the water that she gives us.
I believe that in your time they celebrate her, too, and that she takes the form of a woman with a child in her arms. She is one and the same as our mother – don’t tell yourself anything different. But the earth and spirit that sustains everything shouldn’t be forgotten either – the harmony that she came to create.
Although I hadn’t uttered a word throughout our conversation, in this instance I realized I was dumbstruck.
I went back to looking attentively at the green shoots of barley that were emerging before us and heard:
“The earth is a women, and that’s why it bears fruit”.
