The first act

But, practicality nudged me back to the road, the grey tarmac winding ahead, indifferent to the beauty beside it. The colours were striking, not just vivid, but complex. In dental terms, we’d call it hue, value, and chroma, though those clinical labels barely scratched the surface of what the ocean was doing.

It moved with a calm confidence, rolling forward in waves that struck the tan sand with a rhythm both powerful and restrained. There was no chaos, no storm, just a steady, muscular grace. It wasn’t just the sea that impressed me. It was its demeanour, its refusal to demand attention while being utterly impossible to ignore. The sea may have commanded the attention but it wasn’t the only star of the show.