YIALO by artist Athanasia Nancy Koutsouflakis

Oil on wood, 8” x 5”

Note for this postcard:

Dear Elizabeth,

This image is how the Yialo use to look when I was a kid. It’s where we all swam, (and kept our boats on the other end). We use to climb onto the top of that tall boulder and hang out. I remember being too small to climb it, and felt sad that I couldn’t hang with the big kids. Then one summer my legs were long enough for the climb up. Some of the super cool kids would dive off on the other deep end, hands and head first, like pros. I just did cannonball dives from the edge, trying to be a splashy fat little ball. By the way, I learned how to swim here when I was six, and at 12, I broke my front tooth on a rusty boat chain, doing a dive (that I thought was cool, but obviously not).

It’s different now. They extended the little port (limani) for the small fairy boats to come and go. Also, there’s a small bar and tavern down there, so none of us swim there anymore. We mostly go to the other beach in the village now called Firodi. It’s still really pretty here. I love coming down in the evening to look at the starry skies and boats, in the darkness.

By the way, the boy on the row boat was kind of my first kiss. It was so gross! “Kind of” because my mouth was closed for that 5 seconds of vomitable repulsiveness with bad breath and teeth.

Love you forever ho-bag! JT is a fox!