★A man sets off in search of an unlikely natural place. He looks for answers in a seemingly endless research, until he is taken by surprise.
★This picture book evokes the overwhelming discovery of true friendship. It is by being transparent that we get to know ourselves.
★English translation is available

I’m an explorer of the imagination.
I like to dream with my eyes open and travel through my thoughts. One day, I found a wild forest, filled with vegetation.
Upon my arrival, I felt ready to discover a new life and decided to stay.

There, the insects were huge. They populated the sky and the earth, helping with the pollination of monumental flowers, which blossomed in the day and shrank at night, dancing in beautiful metamorphoses.

I ate fruits, leaves, roots and seeds, which I savoured between each bite. I took plunges in the stream and climbed trees looking for the perfect places where I could lie down and think.

I loved spending time at the shelter-laboratory which I had built with materials collected in the vicinity.

I studied, I drew, I took notes… I tried to understand nature and figure out its forms and connections.

During a field study, I suddenly noticed a being which moved and transformed creating other shapes in the landscape.

I packed my bag and returned quickly to the shelter.
I felt confused, tired.

The days and the nights faded away slowly, and I grew older.
My thoughts became more and more complex and, at each moment, I imagined that place better.

In the midst of the fog and the cold, I saw the mysterious being again. At first, I couldn’t understand him and we were unable to communicate with each other.
His dazzling transparency baffled me.

One day, we met again, we looked at each other closely and I finally got it. I understood his thoughts, feelings, questions, mysteries, doubts and shifts.

Afterwards, I no longer felt him in the same way.
He changed every second. He let himself be invaded by the colours of nature, by the emotions of the other inhabitants of the forest or simply by the atmosphere.

I can say we already knew each other.
I saw him and he saw me.

Through his look, so tender and innocent, I also became transparent.

Mariana Rio (Porto, 1986) has been working as an independent illustrator for different media for over a decade, with a special focus on picture books. She has 13 titles published in Portugal, Spain, Italy, Poland, Mexico, Peru, Brazil, Taiwan and the USA. Her illustration work has been recognised various times, namely by the jurors of the Illustrators Exhibition Bologna Children’s Book Fair, the AOI World Illustration Awards, Nami Island International Picture Book Illustration Competition, 3×3 The Magazine of Contemporary Illustration, White Ravens - Internationale Jugendbibliothek, CJ Picture Book Awards.
She received a Special Mention in the National Illustration Prize awarded by DGLAB in 2018 and 2022 and has been nominated for the ALMA Award 2024.