Curaçao; There where I was born.

There, where the ground is too hard to grow your roots,

but once you do they can never be unrooted.

There, where there is always plenty of food.
Where a neighborhood raises a child,
knows your secrets and acts like they don’t.

There, where it’s so small, you can travel it in a day,
but get lost for weeks.
There where the beaches are made by nature
and the rocks breathe the history of our magic.
There is even a place,
where you can hear a giant breathe…

It’s an island full of diversity
that sometimes unifies us, while other days it divides.

Our history, build on salt and blood.
A mix of Jewish ancestry, European adventurers
and African diaspora
that makes some of us proud,

while for others, it still hurts.

We are an island emancipating.
Released from a colonialism that blew over the west
long after it was (supposed to be) gone.
We are a young nation with a future so bright as our sun,
but as dark as our oceans for we are afraid of what we are incapable of.

Natives and pirates. Kings and queens…

We’ve had them all. We have a history that reads like a book.

We look forward to your visit, but not yet sure of what we have to offer.
We are old, we are new, we are (at least) 42 nations combined
on a special kind of rock.

Discover us, as we discover you.

Curaçao, 2015 by Andy Kirchner