2l6 DAHLAK 



to that rain. Then it stopped. The water slowly drained 

 away cind we went back to bed. 



I was the first to get up. It was nine o'clock. The air was 

 clean. It was a new air and it was almost cool. Then I 

 realized for the first time that for all these months we had 

 been breathing an air with a smell, a bad smell perhaps. I 

 went out of the tent and beyond the still-dripping mangroves. 

 There was not a cloud in the sky. I put my hands over my 

 eyes. What I saw could not possibly be true. It was magic or 

 witchcraft. That burnt grey island had turned to emerald. 



Spring had burst upon us in three hours. The island was 

 covered with short, brilliant green grass. It was growing on 

 the madrepore fossils, inside the rocks, under stones, on the 

 sand, on the roots of the trees. Leaves sprouted from the 

 dry branches of the grey and white trees. The sun was 

 blazing, the colours were dazzling and the air had lost the 

 liquefying heat haze. 



I walked about, enjoying the sight of my footprints on the 

 grass. I sat on a lawn that had been sand the day before. 

 Two red and brown birds that I had never seen before flew 

 up. There were birds everywhere. I called Cecco, Giorgio 

 and Priscilla. Triscilla, come and see! There's grass like 

 there is in England!' And the island was booming with 

 wings. We had a good look round and met two storks, five 

 or six red-billed tropic birds, a flight of brown boobies (those 

 that look like large wild duck), five quails, terns, a pelican, 

 eight turtle doves resting on a branch, three herons and in 

 addition to the permanent residents — the ospreys and the 

 marsh harriers — there were hundreds of little birds, smaller 

 than our sparrows, grey, red, brown and yellow. The quails 

 were on the grass and the stubble of the interior. The ospreys 

 and the marsh harriers circled in the sun. The little birds 

 buzzed around the thorn bushes, and all the others, the 



