Boat of Eden (Guadeloupe, Les Saintes)

They are called kanòt or chaloup-la in Antillean Creole: wooden boats, painted in bright colors, built by hand, often using local woods such as pear or ironwood. While some are still in operation, others remain there, pulled ashore, between the sea and the vegetation, as if frozen between two times.

This boat, placed on the grass in front of a Creole house, evokes another form of navigation: interior, motionless, almost meditative. The word keel , in naval architecture, designates the submerged part of the hull - the one that cuts through the waves and maintains balance. Here, the hull rests in the green. Hence its name: Barque d'Éden .

It no longer crosses the water, but connects us differently: to the memory of ancient gestures, to the slowness of an island, to the idea that a return to the land can be a peaceful choice, not an end.