In these times of speed and traffic congestion, I opened my window and noticed a strange silence in downtown Salvador. I had never seen anything like it. The wind seemed to have disappeared along with the people. In the corner of a square that no longer exists, the tree that usually dances majestically stood still. Inside it, among its leafy branches, I saw restless birds. What could this mean? Suddenly, the wind appeared and spread out. It blew fiercely. Like a lost soul, it lifted dust, stirred up trash, and pushed leaves around. At home, I am always listening to music. But, in front of the window, my eyelids opened wide when these verses sounded from the speaker: “I am the rain that casts the sand of the Sahara / Over the cars of Rome.”
With great fury, the heavy rain fell and revealed the same landscape from a different perspective. Now a watery sound flowed through the flooded streets, overlapping the silence. The facades of the buildings grew darker and more saturated. Stubbornly standing by the window, I was also hit by the rain, feeling my curly hair wet, certainly with sparkling droplets. The cold on my face descended to my chest because of my soaked shirt. Then I realized I was wearing my old and comfortable shirt that was once white, featuring the eccentric protagonist of the book “A Confederacy of Dunces” by John Kennedy Toole.
I decided to close the window and grabbed a towel to dry off. While changing my shirt, I remembered the news I had read not long ago: the story of the lionfish caught by fishermen at Porto da Barra. Despite its majestic name, the species is small, which doesn’t mean it can’t act as a vigorous predator. I see the creature held up in the bronzed hand of the fisherman, its long fan-shaped fins and its striped coloration in shades of red, brown, white, and black. Thus, it seems harmless. Then the newspaper warns that we should not touch the fish directly, as its spines remain venomous even after its death. They also say that lionfish do not usually attack people. Finally, I learn: this venomous fish is native to the Indo-Pacific ocean and has been appearing in Bahia since last year. It is, as the newspaper states, an exotic and invasive species that threatens our biodiversity.
After changing from my wet shirt to a clean and dry one, a pleasant feeling of comfort and tranquility came over me. The Capital of Joy was politely silent, in a state of waiting. The rain provoked a feeling of introspection in me. In the thermal comfort of my home, I felt protected from the dangers and noises of the world. I want to stay like this, calm, sipping a steaming cup of coffee while reading a good book. Out of curiosity, I shift my gaze to the now light rain falling on this day.
Everything changes so quickly. Everything seems so calm. It hardly seems that a Super El Niño is approaching with its devastating effect on all of us.
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