I’ve never been so enamored of a daily sight as I was of this one. During the quarter that I spend studying abroad, I regularly watched fleeting, equatorial sunsets from the lawn of the Universidad Nacional de Guinea Ecuatorial. My classmates and I had a daily break from late afternoon to early evening. In those hours, the sun and the heat retreated just enough to make the stifling, soupy air feel fresh again. It was the perfect time to sprawl on the grass and take in the play of burning light on the fluffy, dense clouds that perpetually threatened rain.

On that lawn, we shared sleeves of sweet Maria cookies and tins of savory Mister Potato crisps from the supermercado. We often talked about the experiences we shared, joining them all together—big and small, ordinary and extraordinary—like the pieces of a patchwork quilt. Sometimes, we simply ran out of words, or were too awestruck to find the right ones. In these moments, we fell into pleasant silences that shimmered on the evening air, rich with that inexplicable sustenance that nourishes hungry souls. In my memories, these moments are gilded with golden light, radiating a warmth that still comforts me across broad expanses of time and space.

This post is a response to the WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge: Look Up.