Years ago, during an unforgettable visit to Barcelona - if I say Barcelona, surely no one will have location problems - I had the opportunity to check out the curious way that geese have to take a nap: stiff as a post and with the head under the wing.

I was able to verify it, as I say, because the cloister of the Barcelona Cathedral has a very special place: a beautiful garden, specially enabled, in which 13 geese live, not one more or one less, which represent, symbolically, the thirteen wounds received in the martyrdom for Santa Eulalia, the Patron Saint of the City, who is usually represented with a cross in the shape of a cross, also called the Cruz de San Andrés.

Well, a few days ago, strolling around the Palacio de Cristal, a place of extraordinary beauty, which is part of the monumental Retiro Park in Madrid, these friendly geese reminded me of that memorable experience.

Looking for shade on a steamy July morning, with the incomparable setting of the small and peaceful lake and the magical architecture of a palace that could be worthy of a charming fairy tale, several geese frolicked placidly, perhaps dreaming of the lost tranquility, a once the quarantine caused by the Covid-19 has been lifted.

The question is, seeing them like this, not only did I find it a pleasant detail that reminded me of the aforementioned experience, but also, it gave me a decidedly graphic image of the beauty and elegance of these curious birds, which apart from being the symbolic companions of the grumpy and Olympian goddess Hera, three of the four basic elements of Alchemy also dominate: earth, sky and water.

And seen, in that way, so rigid and elegant, they reminded me - you see, a simple personal question of association - of the famous guard of the British Buckingham Palace or perhaps, without going any further and staying at home, to the Members of the Spanish Royal Guard, who also remain as they are, as stiff as posts, at the gates of the Orient Palace.

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