A MOUNTAIN FLOWER
Salerno - Sunday, November 24th 2019
At the first light of the morning, my father-in-law and I laboriously climbed up from that cold and dark valley of the Alburni, where - contrary to what the locals assured us - we had not even met the shadow of a wild boar.
We finally reached an open clearing, sheltered to the north from the winds by a rocky ridge, and covered by a thick mantle of grass, on which some small trees scattered here and there shaded: it seemed to us that we had reached the center of Eden .
"It seems like a suitable place to rest a little!" - said my father-in-law, sitting down and leaning wearily on the trunk of a small tree. I did not answer, but I expressed my complete assent by settling myself in another small tree, not far from his.
I open a short parenthesis on my father-in-law, who has been gone for several years, and who for me was much more than a father-in-law: a great friend, and a second father. Meanwhile, he was a very strong and determined man, who loved the mountains, and nature in general, and who loved travel and exploration books.
He loved nature, respecting it.