Dada 165

If you study that space you learn about your place in the world, the accident of history, the importance of place, the joy of imagining other seas and continents and shores. We are lucky here in the tropics. We can imagine that other life much easier. When the sky began to turn green, I knew another day was coming to an end and my thoughts would automatically turn towards the dawn. .The electric in the night in the dry seasons echoed the electricity in my brain, the movement of blood through my heart, a vast internal seaway with its own ports and rivers and quays along its banks. The, the pumping of the manifest, the loading of the cargo, the pillaging of spices and jewels from the river boats of the islands were all part of the same thing. What we sea Dayaks do best when we are forced to look back to our history. I still could not echo the thought that my heart would no longer beat. But these pictures in my head bore their own reality instead. It was in vain. No matter how I tried, the enormous grey of the dawn was still there and no matter the green luminosity of the night, my appeal awaiting there in front of me. Sometimes also it was easier to let my thoughts settle into their natural own groove rather than trying to follow them elsewhere. We are a sea going people. We understand the waves and those who live upon the water. They always came for you at dawn, that’s what I knew; to get the thing done early so the day could move on and the sun cross its line. I don’t like surprises. When something is going to happen I want to be ready for it. It was then that I took to taking extended naps through the day when the time was quiet, in order to keep guard over the night and make out for the first few lines of the grey in the sky, the first hint of daybreak in the dark dome above, the peeling away of the stars and the disappearing light of the moon gone to the sea.