In the Araya peninsula -Venezuela-, where the blue of the sea plays with the foamy waves, projecting a silvery metallic color on its crests, counteracting around it with hills of white salt like snowflakes, bathed by the light cast by the incandescent rays of the sun.
In this generous and splendorous land, Aura Marina lives with her parents Juan and Esther. Juan is a fisherman. She is a young woman of 18 years old, very beautiful and affectionate.
She loves to work with clay. Her love for this art started since her childhood. Nowadays she creates the natural emblems of her country: the turpial, the araguaney and the orchid. With the help of her father she built an oven with adobe blocks, where after shaping these clay figures, she bakes them in the oven. When they cool, he glazes them with a paint that he prepares with crystals from the aloe vera plants that grow wild on that hill.
To this peninsula many tourists arrive on cruise ships to spend their vacations on these beaches. An Italian sculptor named Giovanni arrived on vacation. When he saw Aura Marina, he was impressed by its beauty and its display of emblems. He went to it very excited:
"Good morning, I have never seen a tropical flower as beautiful as you! Are they artistic creations of your inspiration?". She replied:
"I invite you to come to my workshop tomorrow".
The next day, the young man responded to her invitation and was fascinated by the artistic talent captured in those symbols created by Aura. From that moment on, a beautiful friendship arose between them and they immediately began to work together. He suggested that, in addition to creating natural emblems of his country, he should also create emblems of other countries.
He did so and his income increased every day. He expanded and remodeled his house.
After a few months, the spark of love between them arose.
One day he said to her:
"Make some statues" she replied:
"It is not my style, if I make one, it will be with your help and it will be us who will be represented in it, to express the immensity of our love."
They searched the hill of clay for a fairly solid stone of large dimensions.
In seconds they began to carve the statue, placed it on a square plate on which they put their handprints. When they finished it was a success, the two were identical.
Their love affair was going very well when, after several weeks, Giovanni receives a call from Italy informing him that his mother has died in a car accident.
He went to the young woman's house and said:
"My mother died in my hometown, I have to go there first thing tomorrow . I love you very much. Wait for me, don't forget me. As soon as I come back we will get married."
The sadness he felt was so great that his vocal cords could not emit sounds, so his words were able to flow and between his teeth he whispered: I will wait for you". He hugged her and kissed her goodbye:
"see you later, I will always remember you, my stay there will be brief, wait for me!".
With his departure, she felt a little depressed. To make herself feel better, she remodeled her workshop, placed the statue they sculpted at her entrance, next to it she placed a chair where every afternoon she sits waiting for Giovanni, sighing and longing for his presence.
With the passage of time, 52 years have passed since his departure. Today, Aura Marina is 70 years old and is still waiting for him. Standing in front of the sea, her gaze is lost in infinity, waiting for a ship to appear and for her beloved to come in it. Despite her age, she continues to work in her workshop, producing natural emblems of various countries, thanks to which she is recognized as a professional artist of this style all over the world.
This is a fictional story
I hope you like it
The drawings are mine
I use Deepl translator