by Christos Zabounis

In the prologue of the second edition of his book “Les Cypres de Patmos”, the French writer Antoine Silber, after praising the historicity, spirituality and beauties of the Island of the Apocalypse, naively notes: “Here we go around without a helmet”. I have a meeting with the police commander in the magnificent architectural building that the Italians built in Scala, the port, to house their public services. He informs me that every night there are various traffic accidents involving drunken, usually young Italians – what an irony for the former colonialists – who lose control of their rented bikes. I have to admit that when I was their age, when I traveled to the Greek islands, I associated the feeling of freedom with “reckless”, as we used to say in the Army, driving. I continued to do the same in Athens, since there were no controls at that time. Until the first “six hundred” fine arrived, right before the second, when my friend Thalis, and our publisher, gave me a helmet, which I still wear. The same thing has begun and is being done at a rapid pace by the riders of two-wheelers in Patmos, because, as a local professional said, “this kind of writing has been going down since the time of John the Theologian, when God commanded him to write the Apocalypse”. It is interesting that in the same book Silber borrows a phrase from Camus, regarding the Greek islands: “Je vais en revenir debout, enfin”, he writes to his friend Rene Char, “I will finally return standing”. I wish the same for all the reckless and enthusiastic bikers.