14 July 1931 · At sea
The wet monsoon
Rain sideways for three days, and everything below deck smelling green.
Adelia Santoso, 1931
- Written
- 14 July 1931
- At
- Sea
from the book, 1931
rain sideways, warm as bathwater
an orchid in a biscuit tin
no land, and still the smell of rice
The wind has turned. For three days the sea has been the colour of slate, and the rain comes sideways, warm as bathwater. The crew sleep in their oilskins. I have given up drawing on deck.
Below, everything smells green: wet rope, wet wood, the moss starting on the hatch. It takes me back to the morning in Ubud when the frangipani fell all night and the temple steps were slick with petals.
A passenger from Korat keeps an orchid in a biscuit tin and waters it from a cup of rain. He says the trees in his forest drip like this for months. I painted the orchid twice, and the second one is better.
When the rain stops for an hour the deck steams, and the air tastes of river mud and young rice, though there is no land in sight. I cannot say where it comes from. I have stopped asking.
A. S.