Common Treasures: FRAGILE CLIFFS

     Erosion shapes the face of earth, cut by cut, grain by grain... Where once there were higher mountains, now there's small hills, where once there were rocks, now there's sand, where once the ground was stiff and steady, are now fragile cliffs... Still, the beauty remains. Sculpted walls facing the sea, the perfect home of the seagulls with large open windows to the welcoming horizon...
     Along a large part of Algarve coast (Portugal) fragile cliffs like the ones below (Olhos d’Água / Eyes of Water) can be seen. The most part is much more rocky and stiff than these ones but are equally fragile. The irrational expansion of construction near the beaches is contributing largely to accelerate the process of destruction of these cliffs. And some private houses and hotels, with a privileged view to the sea are now in danger of collapse. Probably within some decades only the ones built on rocky steady ground will remain. Nature and the sea have its limits and its own rules… Not always men’s knowledge, science and technique are able to invert or correct those limits and rules…
     Below are also some photos of one of those hotels built just a few meters from the water, a rare privilege that may have high costs. However, this hotel (Tivoli Almansor) was built in a safer place; the cliffs there are very rocky and stiff… but the marine caves around may become a problem. The erosion inside the rocks and not only the surface will go on…

DIALOGUES AND ANALECTS

Part VI

The rock                        Other rocks older and wiser than I
                                       Told me that everything is what it is in its essence,
                                       That the essence of things is constant
                                       And the circumstances, which generate the appearances,
                                       Are random and unpredictable.

The grain of sand          And I, who am just a tiny speck in the universe,
                                        I can tell you that the essence of each thing
                                        Shares the essence of many others.
                                        Your essence contains an unborn sand field;
                                       The sea that touches you every moment
                                       Will undertake the task of revealing to you this truth.
                                       I remember well the time
                                       I lived embedded in the body of a rock like you.
                                       Nothing of my essence was lost.
                                       The essence of the infinite universe
                                       Multiplies constantly
                                       And lingers with the same vigor
                                       In the infinitely small.

The rock                       That is perhaps the reason
                                      Why I feel myself moving without moving,
                                      Why I love the sea
                                      That, at every instant, takes a tiny piece of me...

Suy / São Ludovino, 7/1/1996