2. Tuesday November 7th. Malta: – “Green on our island, what does it signify?”. The tour guide asked. The bus had halted at the highest point of the island, overlooking the cliffs facing to the west. – “I told you before what the colour means”, she added in school-mistress style.
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The recent rains had brought the hillside to life.
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She was a young professional woman, soberly dressed in dark brown and black to match the darkness of her hair. Bird-like small with a trilling voice, she spoke in English, half Mediterranean accent, Italian or further south, and half old Middle England, a lost accent of post-war Britain, doing ones duty, and the insistent tones of nursery school. So that there was an immediate boyish desire, aroused in my chest to voice, green and with these autumn crocuses, which at the same moment was instantly quelled as she continued – “Green signifies hope”.
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The evening before and after some squalls rains at sea
the browns, yellows, reds and dissolving greens.
mmj