Tinted Flowers tells the story of a bond, forged over time between an explorer and the people inhabiting an elusive territory. It is a fickle tie at first, but as the relationship develops it slowly turns into an infatuation that can be difficult to comprehend. As you adjust to the narrator’s unique perspective, you may however reach a point where you simply accept the fixation as inevitable. For this sunny location is a rather peculiar sort of place: distinctively off the beaten track and yet populated by the kind of suave creatures, we tend to associate with refined urban settings. It is where even brief contact with the residents can initiate the oddest feelings: the sense of facing vanished memories, simply from exposure to the smile of a stranger.

The number of journeys that the traveller undertakes is unknown, but they certainly increase with the urge to gain further knowledge. Some go back in time, while others are unmistakably recent. All the trips are documented in great detail, both in a diary the explorer kept and by a number of small pictures that he or she painted on location. A selection has been taken from both sources and is quoted or reproduced in this publication. But even if they both, each in their own way deliver an account of the same experience, they do it with different degrees of accuracy. There are discrepancies where you could feel that facts have been mislaid, creating slips that plead you to construct the coherent picture on your own.

This can possibly best be compared to the sensation you can have when seeing something, first with the left eye and then with your right. What one ought to notice is alike, but only when both eyes are open is there any real hope of achieving a vision with both depth and clarity. Such crisp information can also be hard to obtain in this situation, unless you accept the unspoken challenge that lies at the very core of the story. To comprehend anywhere as seductive as this, a place located beyond the petty judgement that often rules in matters of grace and beauty, you may need to take a risk: dive in and see if you can compensate for what neither written records nor methodical observation alone will grant you access to.