As pequenas memórias (Portuguese) (small memories)

By José Saramago:

Bibliblogue.files.wordpress.com. (2016). [online] Available at: https://bibliblogue.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/500_9789722118316_as_pequenas_memorias.jpg [Accessed 11 Dec. 2016].

It is an interesting memoir of a sad man, who bitterly mourns his youth of poverty. No man should be saddened by his past. All that Saramago lived was beautiful, unique, and he should feel proud.

Some passages from the book:

• «Let yourself be carried by the child you were.», by The Portuguese King Dom Duarte, in «O leal conselheiro [Portuguese] (The loyal counselor)».
• The parents of Saramago:

Propor.esccb.pt. (2016). .:: ProPor .::. José Saramago ::.. [online] Available at: http://propor.esccb.pt/saramago/saramago_biobiblio.htm [Accessed 11 Dec. 2016].

• Village of Azinhaga and the river Almonda, Golegã, Santarém:

6.fotos.web.sapo.io. (2016). [online] Available at: http://6.fotos.web.sapo.io/i/B4e0876c0/19812430_GfzW7.jpeg [Accessed 11 Dec. 2016].

Grandeturismo.com. (2016). [online] Available at: http://www.grandeturismo.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/IMG_9480.jpg [Accessed 11 Dec. 2016].

• Saramago with his mother, at the door of the ground-floor house where he was born, in Azinhaga:

Propor.esccb.pt. (2016). .:: ProPor .::. José Saramago ::.. [online] Available at: http://propor.esccb.pt/saramago/saramago_biobiblio.htm [Accessed 11 Dec. 2016].

• «Only I knew, unaware that I knew it, that (...) it had been written that I would still have to return to Azinhaga to finish being born.»
• «For each olive tree plucked, the European Community paid a premium to landowners, mostly large landlords, (...).»
• «It is now said that it is returning to plant olive trees, but of those that, for many years that live, will always be small. They grow faster and the olives are easily picked.»
• «This loss, however, has long ceased to cause me suffering because, by the reconstructive power of memory, I can raise its white walls at every instant, (...).»
• Olive grove:

Pakandl, P. (2016). [online] Emforma.net. Available at: http://www.emforma.net/imagens/olival.jpg [Accessed 15 Dec. 2016].

• «(...) the dense forest of tamarins, (...)»:

Lepidoptera.butterflyhouse.com.au. (2013). Australian Tamaricaceae. [online] Available at: http://lepidoptera.butterflyhouse.com.au/plants/tama/tamaricaceae.html [Accessed 16 Dec. 2016].

• Fagus:

Depositphotos, I. (2016). Feuilles de hêtre à grandes feuilles d'automne. [online] Depositphotos. Available at: http://fr.depositphotos.com/4203704/stock-photo-fall-leaves-of-american-beech.html [Accessed 17 Dec. 2016].

• Ash trees:

ArbreMons, (2011). Panoramio - Photo of Fraxinus angustifolia. [online] Panoramio.com. Available at: http://www.panoramio.com/photo/55469768 [Accessed 17 Dec. 2016].

• Populus alba L.:

Bico, M. (2014). Panoramio - Photo of Choupo ou Álamo (Populus alba L.), Jardim Botânico de Almada/ Casa da Cerca, Almada, Portugal. [online] Panoramio.com. Available at: http://www.panoramio.com/photo/108318215 [Accessed 17 Dec. 2016].

• «(...) the Paul de Boquilobo, a lake, a swamp, a marsh that the landscape maker had forgotten to take to paradise.»:

Visitportugal.com. (2013). Reserva Natural do Paul do Boquilobo. [online] Available at: https://www.visitportugal.com/pt-pt/NR/exeres/939FE05F-5E3C-47BC-8E2C-9E0E7B63F2E0 [Accessed 17 Dec. 2016].

• Blackberry bush:

Xavier, J. (2010). As amoras silvestres. [online] As plantas. Available at: https://asplantas.wordpress.com/2010/09/29/as-amoras-silvestres/ [Accessed 17 Dec. 2016].

• «(...) to listen to (...) the silence of the forest broken only by the tweet of the birds and the ranger of the branches under the impulse of the wind, (...)»
• The morass:

Cm-santarem.pt. (2016). Caracterização Ambiental. [online] Available at: http://www.cm-santarem.pt/concelho/caracterizacaodoconcelho/Paginas/ambiental.aspx [Accessed 17 Dec. 2016].

• «(...) weeping willow which grow in water, they aren't, one might say, a special justification in an age such as ours, in which, at five or six years of age, any child of the civilized world, even sedentary and indolent, (...) has already decimated the terrifying exercise of mechanical dragons awaiting the gold of Fort Knox, has already blown the king of tyrannosaurs to pieces.»:

park, S. (2016). Willow tree in park. [online] Dreamstime.com. Available at: https://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photo-willow-tree-park-image15383980 [Accessed 17 Dec. 2016].

• Fig tree (Ficus):

INTERIORES, R. (2016). ÁRVORE: FIGUEIRA. [online] Rwpaisagismo.blogspot.pt. Available at: http://rwpaisagismo.blogspot.pt/2012/12/arvore-figueira.html [Accessed 20 Dec. 2016].

• «Very little, in fact, but it is very likely that the heroic winner of tyrannosaurus would not even be able to catch a gecko at hand.»
• «Uncle António Barata did not spend saliva in circumlocutions, metaphors and periphrases, he called him silly directly, with all the letters. (...) Leandro (...) was dyslexic.»
• «(...) the most primitive of the refreshments that have already passed through my throat: a mixture of water, vinegar and sugar, (...).»
• «(...) many hours spent in vain (in vain, to tell the truth, none, because, without my realizing it, I was "fishing" things that would not be less important to me in the future, images, smells, sounds, breezes, sensations).»
• «In fact, child cruelty has no limits (this is the underlying reason not to have them also that of adults).»
• «(...) and two little drawers on the sides, full of odds and ends that were of no use and were going from one year to the other without visible changes of content.»
• «((...) in those days, "returning to penates" meant simply "returning home").»
• «I was 10 years old, but I read plainly, and I understood perfectly what I read, besides I do not make, at such a young age, too many spelling mistakes, which, by the way, is no merit worthy of a medal in that time.»