"Quando você recordar um passado entre nós..."
With that sentence a story began. A story of poetry and musical notes; of romanticism and magic. It was in 1951 that the Garotos da Lua released this first single, with its sweet and simple melody, without knowing that years later the voice that gave it life would change the history of music forever. I can imagine Lota and Elizabeth, immersed in the wild nature of Samambaia's surroundings, listening to this very young João Gilberto and perhaps even dancing to the soft notes, lost in the moment. The song would end and the record player would continue to rip the vinyl, but the music for them would only be an accessory and the melody of the jungle and the macaws would have kept the beat in their heads and in their hearts.
Now the streets wind around me. Buildings go, buildings come. Gilberto's voice envelops them and gives them the missing touch. I am transported by land and by mind, immersed in the avenues, seeing them as before, as in that 1951 so enigmatic and yet so peaceful. The landscape changes and the colors accompany me. Verbs, music, colors, Bishop, Gilberto, Portinari... sensations dance and intermingle, overloading my senses. They are my treasures, the ones I am taking with me, the ones I will transmute into linen and velvet. But I'm not ready to leave yet. There is still the grand prize, that connection to my past, that something that turns them into blood that runs through my arteries.
In front of me stands the Imperial Palace. I imagine Pedro I, on his way to Minas Gerais, falling completely in love with the green. I imagine him supervising the plans for his summer palace with the architect, engrossed in numbers, materials and dates. He would be proud of his youngest son, Pedro II, who after his death sought to finish what his father had begun, bequeathing us this unforgettable construction. His words echo in me, which a few kilometers away were spoken to mark the beginning of a new journey and a new country. "Se é para o bem de todos e felicidade geral da Nação, estou pronto! Digam ao povo que fico" ("If it is for the good of all and the general happiness of the Nation, I am ready! Tell the people that I am staying").
And so am I. I stay. I stay, where the air is pure and where the green mingles with joy. I stay, where the yellow of the sun illuminates you and where the blue sky extirpates your sorrows. I stay to discover the story behind Petrópolis and behind my grandmother.