I feel like I felt then, when I was in Africa, nothing before me and nothing behind me, nowhere to go, nowhere to go back to, no place to stay. Day dreaming, travelling just for the sake of moving, the only way to survive myself. Thankful for being hungry, thirsty, tired, fearful, the awe that kept me standing gave me strength and encouraged me to go….. but where? Without a goal, slowly, holding on to my breath that kept me company and comforted me in my deep loneliness. Sometimes lover of the earth, laying down on the sidewalk of a path in the forest, in the “brousse“, with malaria and high fever, no one around to be seen and without worrying whether there was or there wasn’t someone by me. As long as I could breathe, breathe and look at the sky… cold hot… who has ever met them in that maternal limbo called Africa? Cold and hot were just night and day, alternate thoughts, clouds passing by, rain, sun, sun, rain. Africa the heart sighs and the spirit laughs!

(Translated by Ilaria Gaddini)