29. Brazil of poets​

 Fortaleza under the trade winds. White sand, disheveled coconut trees, indescribable light that changes everything it touches, even the sad mocambos¹ !

It is not surprising that Cearenses² are all poets. In this land of clear air where the young girls are so beautiful with their almond-shaped eyes. All young girls from the North of Brazil are beautiful! We see few of them, unfortunately, on Sunday mornings at the bird market in the public garden perched over the sea beside the old fort with toy-like towers.
1. Shacks. 2. People from the state of Ceará in the Northeast of Brazil.​

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From the top of the San Francisco belfry, this jewel of baroque style, the view extends endlessly into the plain of the Paraiba and its sugar-cane fields.

A little twelve-year-old boy had opened the church door for me and honored me in. He soon confessed that he was also a poet; and that he was commissioned verses for all important circumstances of life, birthdays, company parties, weddings…

I will always regret not having asked to see his poetry notebook that he was so obviously eager to show me. Forgive-me, little poet from João Pessoa, for my involuntary cruelty!