Cultivating the look of love"I wanted to explain what it's like to feel like a foreigner in a big city."It is a travel book, with the peculiarity that, on this occasion, the author begins his book on March 13, 2020, one day before the government decreed the confinement in all of Spain. The place chosen is an old wine press in Cáceres, in the Sierra de los Lares.
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In contrast to the tragic and painful events experienced by all as a result of the COVID pandemic, the author invites us to contemplate nature, to be moved by its beauty, and to discover its author.
Llamazares' simple prose possesses at times a great descriptive force that makes it easy for the reader's imagination not only to see it, but to smell it and even hear it. "The range of greens went from the softness of the newborn grass, to the darkest of the olive trees and the almost black of the oaks, passing through all the intermediate ones. A chromatic palette that would vary with the days.". "To walk through them... is to enter a fragrant tunnel, especially at a time when the orange blossom awakens and fills everything with its sweetness".. "Blackbirds and nightingales provided the soundtrack to my tranquility.".
They say that Heaven is for those who already know how to enjoy it here on earth, that is why it is so important for us to learn to enjoy the simple things, as the author says: "All around us everything invited enjoyment, contemplation and the enjoyment of the peaceful and quiet life... We were content to enjoy the tranquility of the bush having a vermouth and some cheese sitting on the grass."
Hence also the interest in enabling us to appreciate the beauty that is within the reach of anyone, the beauty of nature, a quality that Llamazares undoubtedly possesses. "On April 19 the sun finally shone after a week of non-stop rain. It did so in mid-afternoon, with great spectacularity, and the field, like a mirror was filled with a brilliant light that shone on the vegetation".
To be moved by a landscape it is necessary to develop our sensitivity, as the author demonstrates. "The Extremaduran spring was in its maximum splendor and the countryside was celebrating it with all its colors and lights, ranging from the yellow of the king's crowns and the buttercups to the white of the daisies and the bluish violet of the lilies. As if they fell from the sky instead of sprouting from the earth, the flowers colored everything, turning the landscape into a Flemish tapestry... The miracle of nature repeated itself one more year... and we were excited to witness it... this, at that point, was already a show in itself... it looked like a tapestry of flowers, a watercolor painted by an invisible painter who was hiding behind the clouds".
Wisdom makes it possible to realize when one is privileged, thus Llamazares affirms: "We were fortunate to be where we were and to be able to enjoy a nature that most people had to imagine from their homes.". And the fact is that, from the awareness of privilege, one enjoys the simple things even more and spontaneous gratitude arises.
