I read a lot as a child, starting one book as I finished the last. My whole world was reading books. Heck, it was my whole universe too – because that part of the island was all I needed, and to be honest, it was all I ever wanted.
I was about six years old when a professional photographer took this photo in the school yard on my first day of school. My official day of learning to read. The three adults at the back of the photo were my great aunt, my mother and my grandmother, then there were my two younger brothers. I was so excited about starting school.
It was a lifetime ago, and I can still smell those summer days on the best island in the world. Six years after the photo was taken, I was in the school yard taking photos again. I finished grade six. A milestone.
Between those six years, every day after school, I was always hiding in a corner of the school yard reading. War and Peace, Les Misérables, Outlaws of the Marsh, or The Journey to the West… But that photo, that black and white photo taken on a camera worth a medal, was probably the most perfect moment of my life – my family were smiling and healthy and as Edna St Vincent Millay said, Childhood is the kingdom where nobody dies.
我小時候很愛看書, 看完一本又一本, 我的整個世界就是看書, 根本就是我整個宇宙, 因為島上的那一部份生活, 就是我所需要的一切, 說實話, 那也是我一直以來想要的一切。
六歲的時候, 一位專業攝影師在我上學的第一天在校園裡拍了這張照片, 那是我正式學習閱讀的日子, 照片後面的三個大人分別是我的姑婆、媽媽和嫲嫲, 還有我的兩個弟弟, 我對開始上學感到非常興奮。
那已經是上輩子的事了, 我仍然能聞到在世界上最美的島嶼上, 渡過的那些夏日的氣氛, 拍完那張照片六年後, 我又回到校園拍照了, 我讀完了六年級, 那是一個里程碑。
那六年裡, 每天放學後, 我總是躲在校園的角落看書, 《戰爭與和平》、《悲慘世界》、《水滸傳》或《西遊記》… 但那張照片, 那張用簡直是價值連城的相機拍下的黑白照片, 或許就是我人生中最完美的時刻, 我的家人笑容滿面, 身體健康, 正如埃德娜·聖文森特·米萊所說, 童年是一個無人死亡的王國。
