26. Caruaru

 Surrounded by mountains, at the center of a desert-like region, where rows of baraúna¹ with branches that looks like long green caterpillars separate brushy fields from prairies reddened by drought, Caruaru, city of the hinterland of Pernambuco, wakes up on Saturdays after a week of somnolent torpor. Like in most towns and cities, Saturday is market day. Starting the night before, the central streets and the main avenue, lined with flamboyant trees, are covered with stalls. From the uninhabited countryside, appearing from who knows where, men, women and children set out toward the city, preceded by the predictable and overloaded grey donkey. Oxcarts, trucks, riding and loading horses crowd the streets neighboring downtown.

As in a tale from the “Arabian Nights”, we could say that a genie’s magic wand brought this crowd and this abundance of goods out from nowhere; mounds of fruits, fresh and cured meat, potteries, flours and grains, weavings and horse gear, hats and shoes, sisal cords and strongly perfumed tobacco rolls, furniture, poultry and dairy products, and also, something that would be typical of a genie, everything required to cast a spell on someone or to conquer the beloved´s heart. 
1. A type of tree.​