The Indian Ocean is an aromatic, warm, dreamy sea. I know it from where it washes on the shores of Mozambique. It brings strange fruits and husks floating on the tide, foreign creatures from far away lands the other side of the world, and sea flora of the most intriguing varieties. And it is warm; it comes in saturated hues of blue, emerald green, even purple but never the harsh battleship grey of the Atlantic. Of course those days I spent on the shores of Angola I could see the softer side of the Atlantic waters, but it never approaches the mysterious beauty of the Indian: It is of course incongruous to say this, but thinking of it brings to mind sandalwood; Zanzibar bazaars; playful octopus colonies slithering among smooth rocks underfoot; delicate, lazy, waving long strands of bright green seaweed; and of course the white empty, smooth beaches of Bazaruto; the white washed minimal structures of Mozambique Island... forgetting the sharks in Beira or the treacherous undertow in Ponta do Ouro. I made this piece thinking of the oyster sellers in Quelimane. Nothing they owned or used looked anything like this; and yet this is for me the perfect translation of all that happened there, including the marvellous spectacle of watching monkeys fishing for crabs with their tails. Those skinny, fastidious little creatures would perch over the water on rocks and dip their tails in the water quite low near the bottom until a crab grabbed on whereupon it was immediately scooped up and dashed open and gobbled up with smacking of lips and screeching in glorious mirth. Little eyes like burning coals. This is my celebration of warm sea breezes, pale sands, sighing waves, vanilla days in the '50s. The other side of this story is the rising sea levels threatening those beautiful islands, much of the low lying coast (most of Beira is actually more than one metre below sea level. I used to bemoan the fact that so many tourists had discovered those lovely places; now I see that rather than being spoiled and soiled, they will just disappear under the sea. Maybe other marvels will take their place of wonder.
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