tropic thunder

The flowers here bloom like nowhere I've seen - the cycle of heat and rain keep them fertile and fresh. The palm trees stretch for miles. The foliage is tropical, thick and heady. Walking at sunset around the school where my grandmother taught, frogs hopped out of our way. The sunsets here are magical - always red, pink and orange, the colours smeared across the backlit white-blue sky like a Renaissance painting. I have gone back to the village where my mother grew up. There are family members here that I had forgotten and have joyfully reunited with. The sacrifice you make when you leave, is that sometimes, your memories of where you come from are wiped away. But this time, I have made new ones which I intend to keep.