Just like I explained in my first blog my ‘working method’ is to take a quote from the memoirs and let my memories go. This time the quote from the memoirs is:
Bagoes Koening was alleen een woonwijk aan de Musi (zeg Moesi), een rivier vol krokodillen …
“Bagus Kuning was a residential area on the Musi, a river full of crocodiles …”
I also found a quote in the book “Tempo Dulu” by Annick Doeff:
I firmly believed that crocodiles lurked beneath the Musi’s opaque brown surface ready to pounce on humans if given a chance. Didn’t the natives call a man who had gone amok and killed or maimed someone a buaya to indicate he was as dangerous as a crocodile ?
Bagus Kuning = Mooie Gele = Nice Yellow
Buaya = Krokodil = Crocodile
My mother had a bag and shoes made of crocodile leather and a small snake leather bag. (They are now in my possession.)
In response to the quote and my memory about what happened to the shoes resulted in a poem, that’s partly true. My mother said:
I had a crocodile leather bag
a big crocodile leather bag and
crocodile leather shoes with
block heels ….. kah boom
block heels ….. kah boom
block heels ….. kah boom
I wanted queenie heels
so I said
please mr. Shoemaker
take those block heels off
now I have queenie heels
they sound so sweet
they goes exactly like this
clicker – ty – clack
clicker – ty – clack
clicker – ty – clack
This poem is another item for my booklet, MEMOIRS & MEMORIES. All my work for the Saudade project will be in it.
– Euf Lindeboom