Kahlil Gibran. The Prophet
Herman Hesse The Journey to the East
I will add Fernando Pessoa. The Book of Disquiet
and there are other books, obviously..
Fernando Pessoa, that great Portuguese writer, well known for his personal insecurities had written:
“If one of the faces that I pass daily on the streets disappear, I feel sad, yet they mean nothing to me, other than being a symbol of all life.”
For me, a great pleasure is being able to recognize faces in faraway places, as I enter a hotel, a restaurant or a common place. Nothing gives me greater pleasure than greeting the receptionist by name, at Double Tree at Kuala Lumpur (12 time zones away from my habitual residences) or at the AVIS rent a car counter at Omaha Airport or the waitress with the sonorous name, Ochun, at La Burrito Habanera along the Rampa across from the Riviera cine in La Habana or look for a familiar place along the streets of Palermo in Buenos Aires.
We are sitting Miami, expectantly for the Tropical Storm Elsa to arrive. I was eager for my Cortadito estilo Habana and I hurried to the Cafe Casavana.. and to my horror.. everything was shuttered up and a printed paper was affixed to the window
As Pessoa had written. It is about Life
who will now pour mi cortadito estilo la habana
few moments of banter about how i prefer my cuban coffee
to be made by Cubans especially Habaneros
in a city full of venozalanos y colombianos ..
when she saw me , she would ask. queres tu cortadito
estilo de la habana ? even before i opened my mouth..
she now has disappeared into the multitudes of the cuban
migrants to this city of migrants..
there was also a colombian lady who used to greet me very affectionately and we briefed talked about my travels in Colombia
where am I going to find them ?
Herman Hesse in his book also said something similar
when you no longer no the person is present, you begin to
miss them more and you begin to look for them
everywhere ..
There are three other branches of this Cafe.. Tomorrow I will go to one of them, to order a cup of coffee.. but with sorrow in my heart, i will drink it and will not tell anyone
why I am sad ..
with my luck, i may run into one of my erstwhile cortadito makers? OJALA ..
