Sri Lanka

Two separate visits, both after the civil war. From Colombo's harbor to Galle's seventeenth-century Dutch fort, to Kandy's Temple of the Tooth, to misty morning train rides through Ella's tea plantations, to the remote fishing villages of Trincomalee. South and west — the humid warmth of the Indian Ocean; northeast — Tamil memory. A quiet, soft-spoken island that hasn't forgotten how to smile, yet stands on a deep memory of war.