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Article: The Haunted Land:Haiti's History Has Been Scrawled in Blood, But Its People & Art Are Etched With Life
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- October 13, 1994
- Author:
CopyrightThis material is published under license from the Washington Post. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information)
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For I certify to your Highness ... that there could never be
under the sun lands superior in fertility, in mildness of cold and
heat, in abundance of good and pure water ... the trees reach to the
stars ...
- Columbus describing the isle of Hispaniola
Your jet banks eastward over the cobalt blue of the Windward
Passage and descends to a deep, mountain-ringed horseshoe of lowland
flats the squalid, khaki color of land with nothing left to give.
And on the sweaty ride in from the airport, along the dusty,
potholed roads flanked with low buildings of decaying concrete, you
tell yourself you've seen it all before: the wandering cows and
naked children, the green cloud-topped ...