Elena

“Conosceva tutti i pettegolezzi del paese, ma non era maligna, anzi cercava di rimediare a tutte le gelosie, a tutte le invidie, mettendo una mezza parola di qua, una allusione benevola di la'. Sempre disposta a vedere il bene nascosto tra i mali come un fico maturo e succoso in mezzo alle pale spinose e impolverate della convivenza quotidiana.”
― Dacia Maraini

“Your baby is crying," says the driver to Taiwo, the Ghanian way of saying your cell phone is ringing.”
― Taiye Selasi, Ghana Must Go

“He feels a second pang now for the existence of perfection, the stubborn existence of perfection in the most vulnerable of things and in the face of his refusal-logical-admirable refusal-to engage with this existence in his heart, in his mind. For the comfortless logic, the curse of clear sight, no matter which string he pulls on the same wretched knot: (a) the futility of seeing given the fatality in a place such as this where a mother still bloody must bury her newborn, hose off, and go home to pound yam into paste; (b) the persistence of beauty, in fragility of all places!, in a dewdrop at daybreak, a thing that will end, and in moments, and in a garden, and in Ghana, lush Ghana, soft Ghana, verdant Ghana, where fragile things die.”
― Taiye Selasi, Ghana Must Go

“More than anything, one is struck by the light. Light everywhere. Brightness everywhere. Everywhere, the sun. Just yesterday, an autumnal London was drenched in rain. The airplane drenched in rain. A cold wind, darkness. But here, from the morning's earliest moments, the airport is ablaze with sunlight, all of us in sunlight.”
― Ryszard Kapuściński, The Shadow of the Sun