Yemanyá

Her ship was swept away by the swell of an inclement storm. That same untamed sea led her to the shore of a wild beach.

She always thought that her destiny was to arrive at the port where a husband who did not love her and the routine of a job that she did not like were waiting for her. 

The first day she explored the island she was afraid.  

In the middle of the starry night, the primitive inhabitants of the small archipelago found her wounded and disoriented. Since then, they accepted her as she was.  

She learned their language and traditions. 

Little by little she forgot about the woman she had been before the sea gobbled her up and threw her on that mysterious island. 

One day she woke up and could no longer remember her old name.  

She surprised herself by stripping off her shoes and old clothes.  

She let her hair down leaving it to grow free. It turned to a brighter yellow because of the sun and saltwater. 

The sun burned her skin and wrinkles were carved on her face. The islanders tattooed strange symbols following the lines of her cracked features. 

She forgot her God and surrendered to arms that awakened her secret corners. 

She became an excellent swimmer and diver. 

At night, under the light of the full moon, she would join the women in their ritual dances and sing songs evoking Yemanyá, the deity of the sea. 

For the first time in her life, she knew who she was and felt free.  

After ten years on the island, with the orange and pink lights of a sunset, she disappeared forever.

Several ships crossed the ocean during that night and some of the sailors who were on duty, would swear in fear to have spotted a mermaid among the dark and deep waves of the waters. 

The islanders didn’t even look for her.

They regarded her absence as a completely natural fact.

The cycles of the moon had to be fulfilled, the tides obeyed, and the feminine flow and the night moved following that rhythm. 

Her disappearance was inevitable.  

That is why they did not think about her missing but considered her saved. 

Deep down they were aware that she was not one of them, that she would never have been. 

They had always known that she belonged to the sea.