Silica is a chemical compound that is an oxide of silicon with the chemical formula SiO2. It has been known since ancient times. Silica is most commonly found in nature as quartz, as well as in various living organisms. In many parts of the world, silica is the major constituent of sand. Silica is one of the most complex and most abundant families of materials. Just like my family. My father is a chemist. He’s 77 years old, he recently suffered a stroke which turned my emotional world upside down. It drastically made me realize that perhaps fate gave us little time to become close to each other.
When I was little we didn’t speak much. At one point in time due to various life events he appeared to me as a riddle frozen in a block of ice. The trip to Iceland was our first and perhaps the last one. Our voyage became an emotional journey to our mutual relations, a symbolic reconciliation with his gradual passing.
My 7 year old daughter Tosia accompanied us acting as a mirror that reflected the past. I know that when my father is one day no longer with us I will come back to these moments captured in haste, when submerged in silence we ate up the miles staring into the broad expanse while dad passionately explained with the definiteness of a chemist in his voice that the Blue Lagoon got its colour thanks to silica.
