when i put my hand on the back of my neck i can still feel the moroccan sun. it's red, dry, and feverishly hot. maybe i was sunburnt and that is my souvenir.
on my last morning, i climbed the stairs to the roof of the riad and nestled myself on a sofa under the open air, it was dark but stars decorated the sky, in the distance the mosque shone and blanketed the medina in a thin layer of golden light. i wanted to freeze time in this ancient red city. i was so far away from all i knew, i began forgetting things.
when i was a child i moved around a lot, at least once a year, to a new city always, and before going i would cry to the people i am leaving, why are you sending me away. but when you are young, you grow and flourish where ever you are planted. whenever i would arrive at my next destination, i would talk the way these new strangers did, forgetting the old dialect i spoke in, play the same games these new friends did, and forget the names of those i spent months with.
you create a new future because it is the innate way for you to survive, and you begin to forget life before hand, as if life had only begun in this new place. that was how morocco was starting to make me feel, it captivated me, and i had spent so much time being immersed in another world that priorities began unconsciously shuffling.
but i couldn't freeze time. the moon was soon pushed away by the rising sun, and i headed downstairs to leave.
now it is all just a warm memory in my mind, and i hope dearly it stays.
translation:
love: it is a feeling people cannot live without
it is beautiful and attractive
if you are stressed:
smile
people should choose a simple way to express it
