Tomato Avocado Basil Salad

20210920 #breakfastdiary 216, 23°C/occasionally cloudy Leftover chicken breast sausage from the fridge, tomato, avocado, and the prettiest basil in the world, with lemon juice, olive oil, salt, and pepper #tomatoavocadobasilsalad Barthes, who was extremely sensitive to weather, said in his final year of lectures at the Collège de France that weather is like the essence of life and memory. Weather is a kind of blank state, a meaninglessness that lets us communicate and make contact with one another — but precisely because of that, it can hold subtle nuances that words can't express, or something like that. In other words, it may be weather itself that creates those subtle nuances. Thanks to COVID-19 (in this case, "thanks to" rather than "because of" is the fitting phrase), September 2021 brought impossibly clear autumn skies. Instagram is flooded with photos of sky and clouds. Sitting under a persimmon tree, I imagine sunlight occasionally falling on my forehead thanks to a gentle breeze. I think I understand a little why weather is the essence of life and memory.