Time patrol: Land of the Maya

The pyramid of the Magician. Uxmal. c.1882. Désiré Charnay expedition. Charnay was a French explorer who documented a number of abandoned Maya cities in the peninsula of Yucatan, Mexico, in the second half of the 19th century. See the pyramid then: a heap of stones and earth, invaded by vegetation. The very same pyramid of…

Shadows and stairways

I haven’t slept in three years. Tomorrow will be the exact third anniversary. I can’t believe time went by so quickly. Three years! A little more than a thousand nights! A thousand white nights. Not even insomnia. I just gradually stopped sleeping. In the course of three months. Started on a Monday. I woke up…

An afternoon walk, New York

“From the faraway, nearby”. Georgia O’Keefe, 1937. Met. Born in 1887, she was fifty when she started experimenting with those paintings. I didn’t realize she’d lived until she was almost a hundred, she died in 1986. Sadly, she lost most of her eyesight in the 70’s which must be a curse for an artist. She…

Fly, fly…

Early morning under the African sky. The sun is already peaking over the palm trees behind the military airport. I tie the laces on my second-hand army ranger boots for the third time. What time is it? Seven thirty. What a ghastly hour. I have a slight hangover. I really shouldn’t have gone to the…