Keka

“Down here everything is symbol and mystery.”
― Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Manuel Alvarez Bravo

“On my way back to the town I took a short cut through the forest. A swarm of yellow butterflies drifted across the path. A woodpecker pecked industriously on the bark of a tree, searching for young cicadas. Overhead, wild duck flew north, on their way across Central Asia, all traveling without passports. Birds and butterflies recognize no borders.”
― Ruskin Bond, Tales of Fosterganj

“At the Taj Mahal, just after dawn, the sky is lavender, grey and orange. I notice that the walls of the vast marble mausoleum are not white but a soft and time-aged ivory, and much more beautiful than I had ever dreamed.”
― Nigel Slater, A Thousand Feasts: Small Moments of Joy… A Memoir of Sorts

“Down the side streets, old ladies lined the buildings in rows, shelling peas and gossiping as they sat on upturned baskets. From the apothecary shops drifted both the strange and familiar smells of herbs and spices and concoctions for gout, pastilles for putrid sore throats, creams and ointments, and possets and infusions. The coppery tang of meat and the stench of livestock reeked in the poultry market where fowl of every variety hung with their heads arrowing down. Glassy eyed ducks and geese swung gently in the breeze as it ruffled feathers no longer fit for flight. Here and there, dogs snuffled and snarled, growling over a discarded scrap and scenting the air with hopeful noses.”
― Emma V. Leech, To Steal a Kiss