Sunset

Saint-Exupéry flying?

It took me a long time to start to appreciate sunsets.

The first book that I read where sunsets were an integral part of it, almost a character was “Le Petit Prince” by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, the French flight pioneer that disappeared during a recognizance flight over the Mediterranean in 1944.

Some years later I read Monteiro Lobato’s “A Chave do Tamanho”, one of the many stories that compose the Brazilian classic “O Sítio do Picapau Amarelo” where the author tries to find a solution for a World War II that is devastating the planet and mankind. In the opening paragraph the main characters are watching what Emília – the rag doll – calls “um por-de-sol de trombeta” or a “trumpet sunset”, when the Sun plays a trumpet to call all the colors, specially the reds and yellows and coppers to build a fantastic show.

I used to think that sunsets where melancholic, but now I recognize that they are another component – beautiful, grandiose, emotive – of what we call a day, and that is must happen otherwise how could we appreciate the moon and stars, or the sun rising the next morning?

I really attempted to capture the pelican flying over Marco Island beach while the sun was setting over the Gulf of Mexico. Afterwards I started to think that the lonely pelican could represent Saint-Exupéry still flying.

“On ne voit bien qu'avec le cœur. L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux.” – The Fox