I took this shot around 1990 (I'd have to look find this slide in my photography photos in my storage unit to be sure) when I went to cover a triathlon in Lanzarote, one of the Canary Islands off the coast of Morocco, Africa.
One thing I remember most about Lanzarote was that a local artist, César Manrique, strongly influenced the island's government when it came to regulating the look of the island. Manrique lobbied against high-rise hotels, and I recall that most buildings on the island were two stories at most. Manrique also favored using blue, white and green as the three major traditional colors in local architecture, fitting in with the blue of the ocean, the green of the crops rising from the black volcanic gravel that kept the topsoil from blowing away in the winds that blew over the island, and the white of clouds, I suppose.
Anyway, I took this shot near the triathlon's finish line in the capital city of Arrecife. What I love about the shot is the beauty of the woman, that she was a reader, the ironic wood carving of the jester behind her, the light and shadow behind her, and the probability that this local goddess drank beer, as evidenced by the green bottle to her lower left. Perhaps it was a pop bottle; I prefer to imagine that it was beer. So sue me.
