Azure and argent. Between
heaven and the earth lies the island. Set
in the living sea. A place of peace and
joy where nature and the gods have combined
to leave a mystery. A place where eagles
soar and the sound of the susurration of
the wind touches ears and hearts in a way
unknown before. Here is Eden, the first
garden and which you can still walk in day-by-day;
where the essence is happiness and where
the land and the people are both at one
with the place.
Here in the island may be found a happiness
unsurpassed in the whole wide range of the
globe, here is innocence and ancient wisdom.
Here is exuberance and expression in life
and death which does true humour and justice
to the feelings that beat in the breast
of mankind. Here is a handshake and a kiss
which lets you into the heart and where
the mind is second.
Emerald and ruby. The growing life and
the land, fertile and abundant, giving and
receiving with the pleasure of innocence
and passion. Under a mighty sun or a vast
serene moon with a million lamps lighting
up the velvet mantle of the night are a
people who live life and death with confidence
and have no need of fighting against the
current of a mechanical world. Here a language
of the voice means nothing compared to the
language of the heart.
Here is the land which gladdens the eye
and which the passion of the people has
maintained as the Eden for millennia. Here
the rich red of their blood has added to
the colour of the land so that the two flow
together and the people and the land are
one. Here is the place which has been the
beginning and will last in innocence to
the end. A home for its people and all of
these called in their spirit to a place
where the bare honesty of life is visible
day by day.
This is the island where music is in the
very air and welcome is an open gesture
to the stranger with a courtesy never learned
in artificial ways, but coming as naturally
as breathing. The place where the stranger
is a guest and where the breaking of bread
is a holy and daily offering practiced in
the taverna and the house and the kafenions,
as well as the Church. Here the Samaritan
may be found on many a road and mountainside.
This is surely a blessed island, the island
of Crete..... |
