13. Of Archipelagos and Wandering Seeds

Many metaphors have been used to express the notion of relation: the rope that intertwines, the roots that brush against one another, the branches that spread in search of the Other. Among them all, the metaphor of the archipelago described by the writer Édouard Glissant is the one I prefer. Perhaps because he was born in the Caribbean, in Martinique—a crossroads and fusion of cultures that meet, mingle, and transform; perhaps because he is accustomed to looking at the sea separating the islands as something that unites and connects, rather than as an element that divides and isolates.

Sara Fumagalli