El Malariato

I had met Luca a short while ago.
One evening I found him worn out, engulfed in fever and shivers.
I have three lovers, he said.
My wife, painting, and the third one who is so very jealous that she has tried to kill me several times.
To own me exclusively.

His view of malaria, as a life companion, left me with a sensation that is hard to describe.
Somewhat like upon waking, when you try to capture an elusive dream which vanishes slowly.

It is the same emotion that enwrapped me when I saw his “malariados”.
Skulls and decorations that fathom the doubts and uncertainties of an intimate relationship with the illness.
A clear sign of his deep-rooted wish to know.
An assiduous search for beauty.

Luca was an anthropologist in search of life fragments left along the wayside.
All that is to be understood from his works and in the signs.
In the colours.
In the emotions.
In the joy and the anger.
In the melancholy of our passing existence.

Enrico Capobianchi, Viterbo, 2020