Valentine's Day for my Beloved Island

Pierre Josué Agénor Cadet He never forgot his lyre. Between his fingers, words fly to sing Valentine's Day. As a prelude to this celebration, Pierre Josué Agénor Cadet takes the opportunity to celebrate his love for Haiti in a poem where the Island becomes a lover, mother, and heroine. Between flames and tenderness, volcanoes and plains, he evokes the beauty, pain, and hope of his native land, offering a declaration of love deeply rooted in the country's history and spirit. Oh Haiti, my ardent and beloved land!
Your name is a flame
that the wind never extinguishes.
It burns in my chest
like a stubborn sun
in the heart of February.
On this Valentine's Day,
I offer you neither imported roses
nor paper promises,
but the loyalty of my veins
where your history flows
like an ancient drum.
You are woman,
with hips of mountains,
hair of deep forests,
eyes open to the sea
where dreams
and departures are reflected.
Your laughter is a waterfall,
your anger is a volcano,
your tenderness, a plain at dusk
where children learn
to write hope
on the dust of the roads.
You have been wounded,
you have been betrayed,
you have been sold like a season
believed to be over
but you always return,
more alive than ashes.
Haiti,
my beloved rebel,
I love you in your light
and in your starless nights.
I love you in the cry of the markets,
in the silence of the hills,
in the stubborn courage
of your standing women.
If I had to tell you
what love is,
I would pronounce your name.
For to love,
is to still believe
in the morning
when everything seems broken.
And you, Haiti,
you are my eternal morning. Pierre Josué Agénor Cadet