Journeys through my land - Furna - By Benvindo Neves
It is often said, half seriously and half jokingly, that Furna is not part of Ilha Brava. It's a separate place on the fresh and colorful flower island. This division between Furna and the rest of Brava is essentially due to the climate. While most of the rest of Brava is dominated by a microclimate, Furna is hot, very hot.
Temperatures aside, Furna is the gateway to Brava... the only one! It's the gateway to the island; it's Brava's open window to the world. Furna does indeed look like a furna, perhaps the name comes from the orographic aspect of the place: a small bay, cut out between wild rocks. At one end is the small pier and at the other, the houses that give shape to the community. A community that lives off the sea.
It's good to wander along the avenue that connects the two ends of Furna, from the port to the cluster of houses. It's all very close to the sea. With every step, you can hear the close sound of the waves breaking on the pebbles.
As you walk along the edge of the sea, that song by Armando de Pina comes to mind. Armando de Pina is a true Bravense who, like the vast majority of the island's children, emigrated to North America one day and stayed there! But an islander is always looking for the smell of the sea, he needs the sea air and, overwhelmed with nostalgia, one day Armando de Pina sought out the shores of giant America to miss Brava. And it was on the giant Nantucket Beach that he remembered his tiny Furna Beach. And he sang:
"a tardinha / na cambar di sol / min ta anda na praia de Nantucket / lembra'n praia di Furna / sodadi fronta'n n tchora"
No size, no sand, almost no bathers, but giant enough to make you miss your absent son.
And I, passing by Furna, remembered the music and the suffering that must have killed the nostalgic Armando de Pina.
It is in Furna that the last hugs are left before leaving the tiny island of Flores for the seven departures. But it's also in Furna that the first hugs are given to those who arrive on the island.
Furna may be hot, unlike the other areas of the cooler Ilha Brava, but there is no area where you can feel the pulse of the island so faithfully. Even during periods of total madorna.
