Volume 42, Number 20 · December 21, 1995
Saudades Do Brasil
By Claude Levi-Strauss, Translated from the French by Sylvia Modelski
When I barely open my notebooks, I still smell the creosote with which, before setting off on an expedition, I used to saturate my canteens to protect them from termites and mildew. Almost undetectable after more than half a century, this trace instantly brings back to me the savannas and forests of Central Brazil, inseparably bound with other smells—human, animal, and vegetable—as well as with sounds and colors. For as faint as it now is, this odor—which for me is a perfume—is the thing itself, still a real part of what I have experienced.
Feature, 4207 words
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