What if?

What if I could see what Monet saw? What if I could wonder and hope that for just one moment my eyes could match his? What if I could produce that color storm using a different tool, but the same palette?

I can’t.

I can, however, with my feet firmly planted on the ground gaze, for a second at the same landscape he did. While hordes of Chinese people pass through taking hundreds of pictures without barely looking at the scene, I can simply stare at the same pond and the same trees he once did.

The sad thing of being a tourist and trying to retain the memory of such a rich landscape is that the fact of being a tourist and being surrounded by other tourists is enough to wreck a good part of the experience.

Then comes the rain.

People start leaving the Garden of Monet. Great! Let the rain come. In minutes it stops and I have seconds to see, breath and hear the same landscape Monet once did. Thank you rain, thank you hydrophobic people. Here we go!