Editor's Note: December 2018

December 2018

By Amir Bagheri

I remember growing up, not having a favourite colour. I saw colourful things as visual pollutions that hurt my eyes.

I don’t remember drawing or painting anything, at least not voluntarily.

Perhaps due to the fact that I was horribly bad at doing both, but maybe it was because I didn’t know what to do with all the colours that I was expected to use.

I liked everything in black and white; sometimes grey – but mostly black and white.

I liked anything that had a deep, dark shade to it. I always found comfort in darkness; as if it came with some kind of stability.

To this day, I still prefer darkness. I prefer night time to day time as I enjoy provocative moonlight in the heart of the night than the burning light of sun throughout the day.

I don’t know why that is but my obsession with darkness might be because night time was the only time I was allowed to be myself.

My fondest memories as a child always go back to me being alone, in bed, running my imagination as wild as I possibly could.

I would daydream about the days I am living now, becoming old enough to have a few silver strings of hair in between my dark hair and beard. I would imagine myself as a sophisticated man, that would keep everyone around him on their toes; someone deep, dark, and stable.

I am not sure if I have become the man I imagined myself to be.

But I know that I am currently going through a new phase of my life where emotional and mental stability is at the centre of my decision making. I want to be like black and white photographs; stable, dark, yet sophisticated.

And who knows? Perhaps in some years, those who love me will paint the memories of me with the all the colours that I was meant to love, but never got the chance to.

Dear Odd readers,

Allow me to take this opportunity to thank every single writer and artist who contributed to this amazing platform. Every individual brought a new colour that gave life and light to this magazine.

My limited vocabulary will not do justice to the level of appreciation and gratefulness that I have to all of you, who read and contribute to what we started roughly three years ago.

I hope that 2018 was filled with unlearning, relearning and growth. We tried our best to make sure that this platform was your slice of happiness on the days when you needed a bit of uplifting and we hope that the content on our magazine could encourage you to step out of your comfort zone in order for you to explore the world around you.

This colourful issue is for you.

In this issue:

Photo-series:

And all the Colourful Houses – Shameelah Khan

Joburg tension – Zulu Desperado

Stay Still – Elif Fatima

Light Painting – Desere Vermaak

Poetry:

Beautifully Blue – Mehdi Bagheri

How to make gold out of absence – Nkateko Masinga

Komorebi – Joshua Nkwana

Azure – Alex M.