I think it was after reading Somerset Maugham's short story "The Breeze of the Leaves" that I began to long for the South Island.
The short stories are called South Sea Stories and are set on the islands of the Pacific Ocean, Samoa, Hawaii, and Tahiti. "Isn't that what life is all about: extreme bliss, slightly divided from extreme despair by a single leaf that trembles? It is a story about the dangers of living on a southern island far away from Western civilization, with characters who are not straightforward.
I don't remember why I decided to read this book, but I still have the paperback copy with me, so it must have made a deep impression on me. In the colophon, "Rain, Red" is dated November 1975, and "Pacific ocean" is dated August 1976, so I must have bought and read it when I was 19 years old.
What drew me to this book, at the age of nineteen, was that I was curious and longing for a place other than here, which may have led me to long for the far-off southern islands described in the book.
At that time, tourism in Tahiti was just about to boom, and there were many opportunities to see photos of coral reefs, palm trees and white sandy beaches in photogravures.
However, there was no way I could go there as a university student, and my longing for the southern island of my dreams was growing.
So when I got a job and my senior invited me to go to Cebu, I immediately applied for the tour.
