“Tahiti”

“Everywhere I looked I saw beauty: the stunningly jagged outline of the island of Moorea across the water; a small cove, the very definition of privacy, beside which rested a palm-frond-roofed hut; the toothed tops of mountains rising up from the densest of dense green jungle; softly rounded mamelons covered in verdure the color of green beans. Aromatic smoke rose up from an earth oven situated behind a nearby hut. On burnt coconut husks and hot coral stones, the family was preparing a feast of roast meat and vegetables. I passed trees laden with fruits: a huge palm, its trunk marked by horizontal rings, which bore a cluster of green coconuts resembling oversized grapes; a soaring, smooth-trunked breadfruit tree from which the large fruit dangled like arboreal earrings; and a squat mango whose irregularly placed, pastel-red and yellow-green fruits reminded me of Christmas tree ornaments hung by children. I couldn’t help but think that this marvelous place bore a close resemblance to the paradisal garden.”