Essays
23 October 2025
The sea gave, and kept some back
Pearl-diving is the region's deep memory. The work that touches it tends to keep, rather than mourn.
Before the oil, there was the sea, and the divers who went down for the pearl. It is a memory too easily turned to nostalgia. The stronger work keeps it as inventory: nacre, rope, indigo, the residue of a livelihood.
To keep is not to mourn. The record prefers the ledger to the lament.