In the middle of the path there was a stone

there was a stone in the middle of the path

had a stone

in the middle of the path there was a stone.

I will never forget this event

in the life of my retinas so tired.

I’ll never forget that in the middle of the road

had a stone

there was a stone in the middle of the path

in the middle of the path there was a stone.

[in the middle of the path – poem by carlos drummond de andrade]

The different paths we take in life can bring us pleasant memories or make us remember how many stones we find in the middle of our lives. This beautiful poem by Carlos Drummond de Andrade has exactly this meaning that, alluding to my photo of a path in a sugar cane plantation in the interior of the state of São Paulo-Brazil, brings to mind the hard path that rural workers in their daily hard work travel every day. A path full of stones, not easy to be walked. Only the strong make these crossings.

The paths have many memories and the memory has many paths.
I think this is true because I have many good memories of the paths that I have gone through in my life and my memory goes through several paths. My memories of these places, people and objects that were part of my imagination, of my past follow different paths. These memories are dear to me for several reasons or ways.
As Boris Kossoy has already written (IN: Realities and fictions in the photographic plot. Editorial Studio. 4th edition. São Paulo. 2009 – in Portuguese): “photography is memory and is confused with it”.

“The landscape is not, in essence, made to look at, but the insertion of man in the world, the place of a struggle for life, a manifestation of his being with others, the basis of his social being”. (Dardel, E., 2011. Man and the earth: nature and geographical reality. Translation Werther Holzer. São Paulo, SP. Perspective.)

Read More