I see orange, wax skipping white sheets, but smearing autumn over an open season. I see orange, and it is calm, but robust, rambunctious with a knife. Orange, the color, the crayon, my little pink fingers drawing pompous lines, connecting the mind’s eye. And then eyes, the orange lids like peelings from the skin. They are triangles, upside down like the madman’s costume, its fangs, the mouth wide, swallowing a melon of flame. I see orange as I press hard. Chunks of wax fall off in my excitement. My friends giggle around me. Grabbing for black, I tear down the paper wrapping, greased like last night’s pizza box, and tilt the stick at an angle to shade the sockets, to darken the depths of the throat. The color is sharp, more chunks, and then soft as ... read more

“You want?” The clerk held up plastic. It was a bag, like any other, commonly seen blowing down a street or swept to the side, submerged in the gutters. “No thanks. I have my own here. Reusable.” I lifted the backpack to the checkout counter. “¡Pura Vida!” he said. ¡Pura Vida! Costa Rica’s signature of an eco-friendly consciousness. Heard everywhere, ¡Pura Vida! expresses the pure life, a worry-free contentment, a cure within society. Within the two mountainous settlements of Santa Elena and Monteverde, ¡Pura Vida! is practiced and contained like an abecedarian lesson, honored as an idolatry of the human Soul. From organic produce, to conservation efforts and eco-tourism, the small-town communities present a choice; the ¡Pura Vida! reality representing Life’s diverse beauty. “¡Pura Vida!” I replied, placing t... read more