It's All Over

When the rains came this year the entire country breathed a collective sigh of relief. The strain on our water supplies would lessen and rationing was stopped. Water, this life giving force was back in abundance and when the water is back many other things come with it. Now I am Trinidadian and I can talk about the torrential rain which causes traffic and limits movement, or the flooding that is made worse by improperly dredged water courses but when the rains begin that’s not the first thing that really happens.

When the rains come this country gets green, lush and humid. It begins will hints of limey green on hillsides and along road ways. Within a week the hints explode and a very grown up green takes over. When you begin to notice (if you have ever noticed) this grown up green that rolls and over flows in valleys, it’s not long till the Mama Earth IS finally ready to show off her diverse colour palette and she begins to show off for our pleasure every other colour the eye can behold.
Red,
Yellow,
Pinks, purples, teals
Mauves, lilacs
White and oranges

All the colours appear at first hesitant, but as the rains continue they seem to be given the assurance that Father sky will keep them nourished and they bloom in bright and unadulterated majesty.

In the grand scheme of things the next card Mama plays is not the most significant but it is the one that I enjoy the most. This year in particular I took an opportunity to enjoy the presence of butterflies.

And wow ! There were a lot.
In my living memory I cannot remember seeing so many butterflies. All of them busy and hungry and jostling for nectar. What I loved the most was their bravado. On more than one occasion I saw them crossing the road (Lady Young Road, Charlotte Street , the Highway), flying through cars and offices, resting on fans and banisters. All of this reminds me of the movie You’ve got Mail; Meg Ryan talking about New York in the Spring and the butterfly that goes on the subway to go to Bloomingdales to buy a hat. Like in the movie they seem to bring out the joyful and optimistic nature is their audience.

So many butterflies! And for weeks these ethereal creatures live off of the pretty of the earth.
And slowly the die. No they don’t just disappear. You see them as road kill or in a lizard’s mouth. The few that remain look haggard on closer observation and even children once excited to catch them now know that the last few should be left alone.

Until one morning, after it has been raining for a week – much like this morning – You or I awake and they are all gone and all that is left behind is the mud of floods, the smell of dirty water and the dust of river sediment that hangs in the air.