bananas, waterloo, kites

In England and other northern countries, we do not associate bananas with the palms on which they grow. Round here, in the swimming pool area and in the entrance to the hotel, there are banana plants and on the banana plants banana flowers, white angular blossoms emerging from long, purple, banana-shaped buds, which are horizontal with the ground, so that the flowers look like the sails of a schooner.

A tall, thin American wears a red tee shirt on which the words Waterloo Belguim are inscribed.

Off the beach, in the distance, kites like large birds, their wings permanently pointed downwards on the downward beat, haul surf-boarders across the waves in the brisk wind.