CYPRUS REVISITED (extract)

Paralimni village is located on the road running south east from Famagusta en route to the Ayia Napa resort, which was only a small fishing village at the time.

As our taxi drew up I noticed three elderly Greek men, dressed in their traditional peasant attire of baggy pantaloons, were sitting outside the Taverna below a grape vine. They were playing dominoes.

It was one of those beautiful Cyprus evenings in early May and the fragrance of spring flowers was still in the air. I knew it wouldn’t be long before their spring scent would be replaced by a stronger fragrance from the hot summer days in which the scorching Levant sun left the island in an arid state, not dissimilar to the Africa that lay to our south. The countryside was still interspersed with green foliage and the reds and yellows of spring flowers: these flowers and the ubiquitous roadside coriander would soon turn brown, whilst the moist evening air would become dry and only the heavily scented jasmine climbing the parapet at the entrance to the Taverna would endure. All these thoughts ran through my mind as we made our way to an open courtyard below a galaxy of stars.

© Kenneth Campbell 2006

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