Years ago my boyfriend and I were flying to Singapore. As we traversed over Malaysia he asked me, 'Is this Singapore below?'
'No', I told him, the lush green jungle beneath us did not resemble the country of my birth.
'Is this it?' he asked 10 minutes later.
'No, you'll know it when you see it'.
10 minutes later the concrete edifice that is Singapore met him. As if skyscrapers jutted out of the sea itself, no green to be seen at the angle our flight came in to land.
'Oh shit', he exclaimed.
'Yup, that's her'.
It was my time to marvel at what this island has become. This is only my fourth visit since I left her in 1976. Each time she astounds me. The last visit I felt disconnected to her, Angry at the monster she had become selling her soul for modernity and commerce. I was ready though, this time, to find her soul again. It's there somewhere in the concrete and the rules.....