black snow

%%yellow%%i was reflecting on my time in veracruz recently%%. four years spent among the sugarcane and coffee fields. four years learning to play the jarana and sing old songs. four years making new friends, building community, making art, and raising a cat found on the beach and a dog found on the streets. four years of humidity and mold. four years of rain and fog. %%red%%sometimes it was hard%%. i am not accustomed to mountain life and its climate. i am a prairie creature when it comes down to it. a man of the valleys rather than the mountains. regardless, i cherish the four years i had there. before we left to return to oaxaca, we were sitting in our garden with our neighbours drinking cañitas (a type of rum made from pure sugarcane) gossiping. even though we were high above the sugarcane fields, the winds carried the zafra to us. zafra is the ash resulting from the burning of the sugarcane in preparation of the harvest. it can be beautiful, falling like black snow. i miss the…