Mirror Talk
By: Milto Savvidis
Tags: Travel, Fiction, Journal, Mirror Talk, Awakening

Photo by Amir Geshani @mr_geshani

4th November 2019, Guna Yala, Panama

The dawning of a new day commenced as the nearest and most intimate star broke the dark of the night, creating a serenely moving gradient of black into blue on the horizon. Daniel had awakened early, as the lights went out at 10 pm sharp every night on the tiny island of Niadub in the indigenous province of Guna Yala. As he lifted the latch of his shared cabin with sand floors, bamboo walls, thatched roofs of palm tree leaves and indigo coloured mosquito net curtains, the silence was almost deafening. Looking out along the wooden dock that faced East, a single Guna fisherman stood at it’s end loosening the rope on his hallowed tree-trunk dugout canoe, behind him a host of tiddly islands densely populated by palm trees. Daniel approached the end of the dock with his brand new DSLR camera, wide-angle lens cocked and ready to shoot the developing scene.

“Hola buddy, buenos días,” Daniel said in his raspy morning voice.

“Buenos días amigo,” the Guna replied with one foot on the dock and the other balancing on the tip of the wooden canoe.

“Beautiful morning isn’t it? Last few days have been awfully wet on the island.”

“Si amigo, me parece un buen día” the Guna replied.

“Cómo te llamas? ” Daniel asked with what little Spanish he knew.

“Me llamo Roblé, pero my friends call me el Capitan here on the island,’’ he said, realizing from Daniel’s pronunciation that Spanish would not suffice to hold a conversation.

“Mucho gusto”

“Igualmente”

“This is one stunning island you have here and the food is so incredibly fresh, thanks to your efforts.” Daniel complemented.

“Gracias amigo, I do what I can to feed the mouths of my family and those of the tourists like you that come to visit us.”

“The fish is truly excellent, you must be proud. How do you say excellent in your native Duleigaiya language?” Daniel asked.

“Aha! You say ‘mas tokus’” Roblé said, delighted to share his culture.

“More tacos?” Daniel said in a playfully teasing manner.

“No, no, no,” Roblé said with a soft chortle, “mas to-kus.”

“Mas tokus!” Daniel said in elation, feeling like he had achieved something so early in the day.

As the sun began to creep up steadily behind the adjacent island of Perro Chico, creating perfectly cut-out black silhouettes of the slightly slanted palm trees, they both stood still and absorbed the love that it shone on their faces. Only the slow and gentle rhythmic sound of the water’s frequency on the underside of the canoe could be heard, followed by miniature splashes as the short capillary waves rocked it up and down.

Sunrise on Niadub island of Guna Yala

“Do you like your stay here so far?” Roblé asked in a genuine tone.

“Wonderful, this place is a paradise on Earth. My only word of advice would be to put a few more mirrors in your bathrooms. There’s about a hundred people on the island and just one mirror to share!” Daniel exclaimed.

“Mi amigo, gracias por tu recomendación. Pero, if there are one hundred people on this island, then there are one hundred mirrors for you to look into.” He said with a smile and pushed off the dock joining the rest of the silhouettes.

Daniel shook his head with a frown in confusion, then immediately turned around, lifted his camera and cracked a smile before taking a selfie. He looked happy.