From the window of his room, he observes the road to the municipality of Manatí and some passing cars. The small houses, like those of a model, and the trees like those of a painting by Tomás Sánchez. It is not for less, he is in a camping center that for these days saves lives, precisely at the top of the second-highest elevation of the province.
Las Tunas, Cuba.- He returned a few days ago from Canada and logically, because of the pandemic that everyone knows, he had to isolate himself in El Cerro de Caisimú for two weeks, just in case...
He chats with me on Facebook. He tells me that he talks to the lizards in that cabin that was set aside just for him. But he's not crazy, he's a poet, and a photographer, (they say that artists have a lot of crazy and if so, a lot of honor).
They visit him three times a day, like guardian angels, attentive doctors and nurses. They check his temperature, and blood pressure, ask if he has a sore throat or a cough, and so on. These are people who have families and, of course, they must also be concerned about them, but they go to this kind of center voluntarily.
Michel Johnson is one of the inhabitants of Las Tunas arriving from other nations who are kept there preventively for the sake of themselves and others. "Although I feel anxiety, I do not fail to recognize that it is necessary. We need to be aware that this is the best way to take care of ourselves. It is very important to sacrifice ourselves today so that tomorrow when we get together, there won’t be nobody missing."
He tells me that it is a real isolation because they even bring the food to the room (chicken, pork, food... balanced diet), including breakfast, lunch and dinner, plus three snacks a day.
I imagine him in his bunk, thinking up the next picture, the next poem, while the fan cools down the atmosphere. He thinks of his mother, he tells me, but she knows that he is on this earth, a guarantee for human well-being. From another window, he looks out at some of the cabins and wonders how the others are doing, but he is confident...
"My friends from all over the world write to me, they think I'm stubborn, but I'm a person who enjoys solitude a lot, although knowing it's planned because of a turbulent situation, changes my perspective a little. But it is a good time to get inspired and use the time to write.
Michel accumulates experiences. He is a sensitive young man who will surely know how to transform silence, the gentle breeze, that pleasant view that the hill gives him, and even some flock of goats that appear nearby, into creations. Even a small frog accompanies his stay and has already given him a name: Liennis, like a friend.
"I want humanity to be free from this pandemic; it is my greatest wish. I also hope that it will help us to value life more. As I am hypertensive, I have slight lung failure and cardiovascular problems, I belong to the risk group, but the care here is very good. I know that if I had any symptoms immediately I would be taken to a hospital and tested, but everything is fine for the moment," he says.
It's been a few days since he returned from Canada on a flight with seven others (he was the only one from Las Tunas). There, his The Ivory Tower photo exhibition (inspired by the beauty of the ballet) was postponed because of the new coronavirus, but "now the main thing is to rid the world of this pandemic.
Today he knows that his stay at El Cerro... avoids any epidemiological outbreak and takes on the challenge of waiting... Meanwhile, the muse, who according to him visits him "at night on his bicycle" (metaphor), seduces him and writes: -"I know that I hung on a tree swayed by the wind / forty long nights, / wounded by a spear and given to Odin. / I myself offered myself, / on that tree of which no one knows its roots..."
It is his gift to all those people who at every moment, from any corner of the world, encourage him to stand firm. Certainly, the hill, with its amphibians, reptiles and diverse trees, is also inhabited by solidarity.
