My fears were unwarranted: In the end, the river was kind and calm and
let me pass--I said goodbye regretfully, lingeringly, even I have to
admit tearfully.
I am quite sure I shall never return to the island that has been my
world for a month.
It is a closed chapter, but a very definite chapter, and I have learnt
many things. I have learnt that nature, with her camouflage garb of
beauty, is merciless, cruel, pitiless and hostile. The unpolluted
virgin forest contains poison and disease. Civilization which I have
always scorned is fighting Nature all the time. The wonder is that
anyone survives Nature. Cruelty is primitive, not decadent, as I used
to believe.
Nevertheless, long after I have forgotten the hurt of Nature, I will
remember a thousand beautiful things that are indelible.
I have been happy--on the whole tremendously happy. A happiness that is
pure and abstract and did not depend on a human being.
But if I lived in this country I should weary of the seasonless
sameness. There are things that the blood of my race would cry aloud
for.