Shadow (Ciltli)

Shadow lives in the forest...
It goes forth at night
to prowl around the fires.
It even likes to mingle
with the dancers...
Shadow...
It waves with the grasses,
curls up at the foot of trees...
But in the African experience Shadow is much more. The village storytellers and shamans of an Africa that is passing into memory called forth for the poet Blaise Cendrars an eerie image, shifting between the beliefs of the present and the spirits of the past.
Shadow...
It does not cry out,
it has no voice...
It can cast a spell over you...
It follows man everywhere,
even to war...
Marcia Brown's stunning illustrations in collage, inspired by her travels in Africa, evoke the atmosphere and drama of a life now haunted, now enchanted by Shadow.