Venice's ship
Venice is a world-famous water city with criss-crossing rivers, and ships become the main means of transportation, equivalent to cars on the street. The boats in Venice are twenty or thirty feet long, narrow and deep, a bit like canoes. The bow and stern are tilted upward, like a crescent moon hanging on the horizon, with light and flexible movements, like a water snake in a ditch.
We sat in the cabin with leather cushions as soft as sofas. Ships cross different types of stone bridges. We opened the curtains, looked at the ancient buildings standing on both sides of the river, and welcomed the passing ships. It was fun.
The boatman's driving skills are particularly good. The sailing speed is extremely fast, and there are many ships coming and going. He can handle it with ease and is in no hurry. No matter how crowded, he can always squeeze through and turn left and right. When he meets a very narrow place, he can always pass smoothly and make a sharp turn at an extremely fast speed. The buildings on both sides fly backwards, and our eyes are too busy to know which one to look at.
Businessmen put on big bags of goods, got off the boat in a hurry and did business along the river. The young woman was laughing loudly on the boat. Many children, accompanied by nannies, went to the suburbs by boat to breathe fresh air. The solemn old man took his family and Bible with him and went to church in a boat to pray.
In the middle of the night, the theater was over, and a large group of people squeezed out and boarded their own rubber boats. The crowded ships soon dispersed and disappeared in the winding river, and there was a burst of laughter and other sounds. The water gradually became quiet, and only the shadow of the moon was seen shaking in the water. Tall stone buildings stand by the river, ancient bridges cross the water, and large and small ships are moored on the dock. Silence enveloped the water city, and ancient Venice fell asleep again.
Dance with elephants
In Thailand, it is natural to meet elephants on the roadside or in the Woods. Don't be surprised or alarmed. The elephant turned a blind eye to the crowd (D incarnation). It will shake its big ears at you like a cattail leaf fan, and walk its own way unhurriedly, with a leisurely look. Like the national treasure of Thailand. The initial development and prosperity of this country are closely related to elephants. Elephants used to carry soldiers to the front, attack cities and defend bases; I used to work and serve the Thai people with ten ones and one hundred ones. The day when the tamed elephant walks out of the jungle may be the day when great changes have taken place in local production and life. It is not surprising that Thais have a cordial feeling for elephants.
In China, elephants are always seen far away in zoos, and people and elephants are far away. In Thailand, there is no distance between people and elephants. Many times, I stood with the elephant, the elephant's ears patted my shoulder, and the elephant's snorts sprayed on me. At first, I was a little nervous, but when I saw the peaceful Thais around me, my nerves relaxed. Looking at the elephant at close range, I found that the expression of the elephant was very calm. Compared with its big head, those eyes are small, but they are crystal clear and gentle. Compared with such eyes, your nervous mood will naturally relax.
It is said that the elephant is a clever and aura animal. In Thailand, elephants confirmed this statement with their actions. Most of the elephants seen in the city are animal actors who can perform programs. Under human training, they can kick the ball, stand upside down and salute with ridiculous gestures. The most interesting thing is that elephants massage people (mó). Rows of people were lying on the ground, and elephants walked slowly through the crowd. They carefully find a foothold between people. Every time they pass by, they stick out their stout feet, gently touch them, and sometimes massage them with their noses. Interestingly, it occasionally plays jokes on people. Once, I saw an elephant take off a lady's leather shoes with its nose, and then rolled up her shoes and left leisurely, making the lady lying on the ground scream anxiously. The elephant who took off his shoes simply ignored the lady's cry, waved his shoes with his nose and circled around the onlookers before he unhurriedly returned to the lady and returned her shoes. The lady was surprised and embarrassed (gān), only to see the elephant curtsy at her, as if apologizing. That huge body, when kneeling and nodding, is as elegant as a polite gentleman (shēn).
What impressed me most was watching elephants dance. It was in Dongba Paradise in Bahia (bā), where a group of elephants performed for people. After the performance, it was also a tide. In the cheerful music, elephants danced and the audience flocked to the wide venue. The crowd danced with the elephants, and the warm atmosphere (fēn) infected everyone present. The dancing elephant doesn't feel heavy at all. They shook their heads with the rhythm of the music, stood on tiptoe to lift their legs, trembled back and forth, and waved their long noses in the air. There is no doubt that they are as intoxicated with music as people. At this time, their expressions seem to be very happy. I think, if elephants can laugh, what they are showing now is their unique smile.
Color Africa
Africa is really a colorful world! Blue sky, scorching sun, green trees, red soil, colorful flowers and shiny black brothers constitute a colorful Africa!
As the source of color, the equatorial sun is so strong, so hot and so bright. The dazzling golden light reflects the exceptionally blue sky, just like a transparent sapphire. In the dry season, there is not a cloud above the blue sky, and the vast sky is not very high. On the Atlantic coast of Pointe Noire, the blue sky and blue sea meet on the horizon, and the blue sky and blue sea blend together, making you feel that the blue sky in Africa seems to be closer to human beings.
I don't know if the earth near the equator is close to space, and this feeling of closeness between heaven and earth is particularly obvious at night. Once, the news delegation rushed back to Bamako from Mali Segou. When the sun, like the sun, disappeared in the western sky, the stars blinked one by one, and gradually, the Milky Way hung high and the sky was full of stars. When we put our heads out of the car, we suddenly found that the light band of the Milky Way is so wide and clear, and Altair and Vega also look big and bright. The deep blue sky studded with precious stones hangs down, and countless stars talk to coconut trees in the night. No, like a whisper.
Plenty of sunshine and rain make everything in Africa open except the desert, with blooming flowers, rippling blue waves, green eyes and flowers everywhere. It is not too much to compare Africa to a colorful world. In China, most of the flowers are cultivated artificially, while in Africa, no matter in rural areas, suburbs or cities, colorful flowers are blooming everywhere, but most of them are wild flowers, which are bigger, more lush, brighter and more lovely than the flowers we planted in flowerpots. There are so many flowers in Africa, because there are flowers, grass, shrubs and many trees there. Mango trees all over the mountains are dotted with white flowers, tall fairy trees with golden flowers, extremely common magnolia trees with white or white jade cups, and more common torch trees with more red flowers than green leaves. A tree is like a fire and a row is like a sunset. In the flower season, the streets of Congo and Zaire become colorful avenues and long rivers, and people walk on the streets as if they were in the depths of a sea of flowers. What's even more amazing is that there is a tree called Flower Tree. From a distance, it looks like it is full of colorful flowers, which is very spectacular. Take a closer look, it is full of colorful leaves, including purple, yellow, green and red, which seem to be very affectionate and nod to people frequently.
The plant world in Africa is colorful, and so is the animal world. In Virunga Nature Zoo in Zaire, there are colorful pythons, black and white zebras, countless red-feathered birds, colorful birds interwoven with various colors, beautiful and docile sika deer, and even African lions, hippos, leopards and elephants. You may say that the colors and shapes of these animals can be seen in zoos and metropolises in China. Then, there are more than 14000 kinds of butterflies in Africa. What percentage can Africa account for? No one counted it. I think there are hundreds or even thousands of species in Congo called Butterfly Kingdom. Because we have only seen hundreds of species in a big hotel in Pointe Noire. Those butterflies were preserved, made into exquisite butterfly crafts and put in hard plastic bags. There are dozens of varieties in a bag. Their colors are not only red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple, but also their colors and the colors of the whole bag are changing, interweaving, infiltrating and shining. If you combine dozens and hundreds of bags of butterfly crafts, you will see colorful light. This is still the color of solidification. If you go to Obando, Congo, which is rich in butterflies, and attend the "Butterfly Concert" in a world full of butterflies, you will be in a colorful space and listen carefully to the slight rhyme of the colorful angels flying. As if stepping into an illusory fairyland, it is more poetic than the Jade Qiongge that we China people yearn for!
Africa's natural landscape is colorful, and the lives of black brothers-their food, clothing, housing and transportation, their songs and dances, and the art they created are all colorful. Africans pay special attention to the bright colors of clothes. Men, women and children like to wear flowered clothes, while women pay more attention to the collocation of colors, and they like big contrast, such as white flowers on a blue background, red flowers on a yellow background, and red and green cloth, which are the best sellers. Looking around in the festival market, there are colorful rivers and lakes, where colorful clothes meet. On the dining table of the rich, there are deep red blood on the steak, colorful fruit salads and colorful juice flowing; In less affluent families, cassava is pink, bananas are golden, inexhaustible mangoes are yellow and red, and very cheap watermelons are mashed with red sand. Although most of the houses of black brothers have small white iron roofs, many houses are hidden among green trees and red flowers. If you live in a hotel, it is green and colorful inside and outside. At caribou Hotel in Goma, Zaire, we saw a fence covered with flowers, a courtyard decorated with flowers and a path covered with flowers. In the Lenilla Hotel in this city, we enjoyed the hall decoration that was integrated with nature: the wine cabinet was covered with a grass-topped veranda, connected by thick carved wooden columns, with a birdcage lampshade between the two wooden columns, and the panes for holding various famous wines were made of thick bricks. Gourds, long and pointed fishing bags and round bamboo weaving are hung on the four walls of the restaurant. Rough flowerpots are hung high on the beams, and the red flowers in the pots grow exceptionally luxuriantly. What is more distinctive is that there are three canoes of different sizes in the lobby. The canoe is black and red, carved from fine wood, with green grass and colorful flowers. Being in the lobby of this restaurant, I seem to have returned to the embrace of nature and reveled in an ancient and remote realm.
African art is also colorful. Black African paintings-whether copper paintings, wood carvings, sand paintings, turtle shell paintings and butterfly paintings, are all in color; Black African handicrafts, whether black wood carving, gray wood carving or ivory carving, are all colored; The rough and bold music and dance of African blacks are colorful. If you are lucky enough to attend the bonfire party and see people dancing around the burning flames in colorful dresses, no, they are mobile and dancing with colorful melodies, you will appreciate the colorful beauty, surging momentum and infinite vitality of Africa.
Ah, Africa, what a colorful world.