Coron + El Nido (Palawan). | November 2018

“Every morning I boarded a wooden boat and hopped from island to island. The salt water softened the curls in my hair. The sun brought my skin tone closer to god. I swam in hidden lakes on the top of volcanic mountains and snorkeled with lion fish and pygmy seahorses. I went scuba diving through sunken Japanese WWII supply ships at the bottom of the South China Sea, the colossal vessels lying hauntingly still in their watery graves. I laid out for hours on vacant white sand beaches reading page after page of Tayari Jones. I ate crab for every lunch - the thin shells slicing my fingers in pursuit of the sweetest meat. I ate Pacific lobster for every supper and let the butter drip down my chin. I floated weightlessly in vast lagoons as the sun warmed the crown of my head from above, the green ocean waters heating me from below.”

-Tess Thomas, The Laughing Diet; “Silence Also Speaks”