Tonle Sap Lake, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Cambodia, 25 February 2007 At the check point to access the Tonle Sap Lake area I am, probably, the first person to be issued an entry ticket. The temperature is not yet very high, and the humidity doesn't make clothes stick. The dirt road, dusty, straight, of an intense red colour, contrasts on the sides with the motionless, intense green of the rice fields. I left Phnom Penh about an hour and fifteen minutes ago without having met any motorbike or truck. No sign announces the breaking of this silence and suddenly market, smells, fishermen …. I reach the shore of the lake and hear voices growing more insistent. I don't understand, of course, but I manage to decode the shouts. Some adults shout: there, no go to that point, yes, more to the right, turn back, move to the left …… ….. Some children, then others join, and yet others. Two brothers. A game, perhaps, but it's the game of life.

They talk to each other, one on one side the other on the other, they look for each other, they confront each other ………… Some hours have passed: the sun high, no clouds in the sky and sweat filling your clothes with stains. For everyone the moment has come to go home.