The Island of Missing Trees

by Elif Shafak

A map is a two-dimensional representation with arbitrary symbols and incised lines that decide who is to be our enemy and who is to be our friend, who deserves our love and who deserves our hatred and who, our sheer indifference.

Cartography is another name for stories told by winners. For stories told by those who have lost, there isn’t one.

But, then again, anyone who expects love to be sensible has perhaps never loved.

As you aged you cared less and less about what others thought of you, and only then could you be more free.

Because that is what migrations and relocations do to us: when you leave your home for unknown shores, you don’t simply carry on as before; a part of you dies inside so that another part can start all over again.