"Earth Laughs in Flowers"

Emerson said that.

But here I ask you: Does the title of this blog include the Portuguese noun for 'beautiful island?'

Yes.

It is with that in mind that this space will fill with words. It is to the natural beauty, and perhaps from time to time the unnatural beauty, that I shall sing. Such a misunderstood place Taiwan is. Such a grand, misunderstood place. A place of difficult description, cultural and otherwise. A gray place, where ups may be downs, where one's escape may be their capture, where white and black meld.

"If a man walks in the woods for love of them half of each day, he is in danger of being regarded as a loafer. But if he spends his days as a speculator, shearing off those woods and making the earth bald before her time, he is deemed an industrious and enterprising citizen."

Thoreau said that.

"In the fashion of myself, I aim to bask in light between the shadows of the trees and shelter within the shadows themselves, to adhere to what can be learned from the shimmering backs of riverfish, and from the insects noble texture, to hear the songs in the wind and the laughter of the flowers. In this place and in all places the earth laughs, and since I am here, I laugh with it."

I said that.