Latin America!
The Caribbean!
Images of glistening bodies sleepily resting in hammocks. A warm breeze knocks them back in their blissful coma. The crescendo of sounds coming from minibuses and market vendors shouting sweet songs of slander and solicitation. This is my childhood. These were memories of a place still hard to conquer. In it were gems of only people from the region would understand.
Today, these gems have transcended into more translatable manifestations. From Peru's many cooperatives which empower women to Brazil's innovative technology in sustainable textile fabrication -- fish skin which is now being used to treat burn victims.
Needless to say, this is my region. My home! And there are so many amazing ethical gifts to be found, once explored.
LATIN AMERICA + THE CARIBBEAN
There runs a dream of perished Dutch plantations
in these Guiana rivers to the sea
Black waters rustling through vegetation
That towers and tangles banks, run silently
Over lost stellings where the craft once rode
Easy before trim dwellings in the sun
And fields of indigo would float out broad
To lose the eye right on the horizon
These rivers know that strong and quiet men
Drove back a jungle, gave Guiana root
Against the shock of circumstance, and then
History moved down river, leaving free
The forest to creep back, foot by quiet foot
And overhang black waters to the sea
There runs a dream, A.J. Seymour
Seafrina by Maryam Patel
Made in Barbados