Happiness
I can say my life started in Mozambique, because I arrived there with only two years; I don´t remember that much, but I remember being insanely happy. Life was easy, clear and almost transparent. If I needed a word to define it, I would say unpolluted.
I also remember my street; an unpaved street with many trees. In fact, there were no houses on the other side, only a large space were the civilization had not yet arrived with its buildings; we had the luxury of our own small forest. In fact, a luxury I went through every weekday, because my school was very near, on the other side of the forest.
I always think about Mozambique as my golden age. An epoch filled to the limit with wonderful things, with delicious times.
I just had to be happy. This was really my only obligation, by then.
About 10 years ago, my grandparents came to visit us in South Africa and my mom surprised them with a trip to Mozambique. They went and look if their old house (which of course they lost along with a large granite and marble factory) was still there and yes it was and the people living in it invited my family in, they all spoke about the past, had coffee together and then a beautiful thing happened. My grandmother told them she had planted a mango tree from a seed and wondered if it was still there, not only was it there but it was full of mangos. My gran asked them if she could have one to taste and another to offer me because she knows how much I love a mango, and they gave her a bag full.
When my gran gave me that mango, it was such a proud moment for her.
Though they lost so much there and had to say goodbye to a country they all loved, I found it beautiful that so many years later there was no resentment, they had peace in their hearts and where just proud to have seen the house they built standing there and that mango tree. Beijinhos