It's a descriptive piece based off the prompts "Describe the last moments before you leave a place for ever"
It focuses on all the senses, but really zooms in on the bittersweet qualaties that 'taste' plays in the role of leaving a tropical island f...
The Last few moments in a place that you will never see again are always deeply, imprinted on your mind.
Whether the experiences and memories were positive, negative or somewhere in between, the realization that this is the last time you will ever set eyes on your current surrounding somehow enhances your senses.
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You start noticing little details you have never seen before, you suck in the sights of the familiar streets and huts, the buildings and people. Noticing a picture on a wall, child sitting all alone, watching a bird carefully hop closer to the crumbs put out for it.
The sounds of the surroundings also enhance as you hear the jungle all around you, full of life and silence. Leaves rustling in the wind and distant howler monkeys, living wild and free. You know you will never hear this again. Not like this.
You will never feel the same cool breeze with such relief on your sticky sweat-covered body, as you step out of the jungle onto the beach. And although most beaches have sand, you know the sand anywhere else will not be the same as the grains wriggling in between your toes right now.
The smell of every place is unique. The smell of sweat, salt, ocean and rainforest all mixed into one lingers in you nose as you take a deep breath. Trying to memorise it.
The last moments spent in a place you will never see again are always memorable, but it is perhaps the taste that defines the moment the best.
Associating a certain taste with a place might be strange to some. It's not like we go about licking the ground we tread on. But subconsciously, taste defines the place, and cements it in your memory for years to come. It does so the most vividly out of all the senses.
The taste I am referring to, is the taste of regret. The taste of victory, the taste of relief.
"Are these tastes?" you argue. Yes, I say. For although these are also feelings that you feel they are often vivid enough to taste.
The bittersweet taste of relief. The sweet taste of victory, the sour taste of regret. These are what define the last moments in a places you will never see again. Not necessarily because it was the strongest sense, but because it was the last one. It is the one that remains in your mouth even as the others fade with distance and time. It is the one that fills your mouth years after as you think back on the memory of the place you will never see again.
The taste of a place you have experienced will linger on forever in memory.
