HAPPINESS, love and everything else in between life and death is temporary but the moon isn't; she doesn't fall out of love, she has been consistently guiding us through the darkness, firmly holding a silver lamp of love. She has been there in the loneliest nights when nobody else was there to reach out to. And she will be there to embrace us in the sobbing nights until we are dead and after that, for the sake of an unuttered commitment between the moon and man. She speaks no words but what are words but lies, she talks through the light and the shadow. Light being the color of molten metal of silver and gold but there are other colours too, mostly the ones you like. And the shadows of old trees, leaves, branches, hills, mountains and real life ghosts.
I like the new-moon too; something it is pure about the darkness, when fireflies become the twinkling stars of the horizon and star dust lingers on your fingertips as they pass you by. There is a pleasure in the complete blackout when you see nothing, hear nothing except for your heart. Nevertheless you keep your eyes open or closed oblivious to the darkness looming ahead. And finally you get a chance to open up and speak to the reflection of your heart, even to the darkest part. Your sins hidden in the depths arise in the form of fireflies and you release them one by one into the air.
I have seen the sliver magic of the full moon in the hills, in the evergreen forests, in the mangroves of the Sundarbans, in the grey waters of the Padma or the mighty Jamuna, in the remotest island, in the plains of our Haors, in all directions -- North, South, East and West.  After all, this is all I do, I watch; everything in between the stars and soil, and beyond that.  
Have you seen the moon slowly rising above a thousand tall trees, or on the moving water glowing like quicksilver? Have you seen the barn owl in the moonlight, inaudibly searching for a field mouse to feed its young or the flying squirrel leaping from one tree to another filtering the light and the shadow of the moon? Have you seen an egret flying into the moon, or just one dwarf tree standing alone in the plains under the full moon, creating a black and white negative of its daytime image?
If not, then preen your wings, break your roots, untie your anchor from the city shore and set off to witness the next full moon in the wilderness, and learn to love all tangible and intangible things with a heart full of moonlight.

Photo: Sayam U. Chowdhury