Dany Laferrière: The Inner Journey

I had recounted, a little too quickly, my most recent trip to Haiti, forgetting the secret reason behind that odyssey, which was to rediscover that first landscape I had encountered during my childhood in Petit-Goâve. A world, far removed from any folklore, whose colors today seem less vivid to me than in my still-dazzled memory, though weakened by the hollow of half a century. Indeed, this year marks 50 years since I have had a permanent home here. And yet Haiti remains my country. And this latest trip gave it back to me in full.