With no phone lines in many rural communities cell phones quickly found a strong market in Jamaica. However long distance calls often get dropped so while my mother was living in Jamaica the easiest way for us to stay in touch was often by text messages. Enjoying the Sweet Smell of Coffee emerged from a text I received while walking home one evening. After the Rain is my response.
Every spring as Vancouver erupts into bloom I think back on these two texts and how Spring and Fall are so different in our temperate climate than in the tropics. Jamaica has no season of rebirth, no season of slumber.
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‘Jamaica has no season of rebirth, no season of slumber’ – My response – perhaps not in the same way as Canada but there is rainy season when the rain pours out of the sky like a tap and it is challenging, almost impossible to go outside, there is hurricane season which lasts from June to October, mango season, breadfruit season, well virtually any food crop in the Caribbean has a season. We may not have to wait for the flowers to blossom but waiting for ackees to ripen is equally if not much more rewarding 🙂
Lulu,
Thank you for your comment, you raise a good point that many living outside the tropics don’t understand. Yes, Jamaica has seasons and those seasons have just as much impact on daily life as a dark, cold winter where one has to bundle up and stay inside, or spring when everything – plants and people – burst with new life. Very few living on the West Coast of Canada would be able to understand a Dry Season and the stress when a water tank runs low and the fields dry up, nor appreciate the wonder that is pear season or sitting down to a bucket of mangoes for breakfast. All too many temperate eyes see only lush greenery that never seams to fade and warm temperatures that they mistake for never ending summer.
I would say that the difference in the tropics is that one can go through many drastic weather events in one day. The sun is hotter, the wind is wilder, and when it rains it pours.
Nothing dampers the sweetness of mom-daughter love, though. No matter the distance.