I was sitting at the edge of a narrow, sun bleached, wooden dock looking out to the horizon: where the equatorial blue noon sky and the saturated Caribbean turquoise water meet. In my peripheral vision, I catch something disturbing the soothing repetitive flow of the water’s surface. I turn my head towards the movement, fully expecting to see the usual silver shine of a sábalo (tarpon). Instead, what I saw was a gleaming yellow creature I had never seen before swim towards the dock. It got closer and through the crystalline water I saw that it was a pulpo amarillo brillante (bright yellow octopus).

As if it had found its audience, it paused in front of me and began swaying all of its extremities, each one echoing a different pattern of the gentle ripples above it. While it danced hypnotically, sun beams would puncture the surface and reflect on all parts of my visitor, creating a spellbinding performance that has since defied all my words and rationality. That stunning display, a resplendence of the most beautiful yellow I have ever seen.

Nabila Morales Pérez is an artist, researcher, and designer with professional training in architecture. She is from Arecibo and Hatillo, Puerto Rico. In her work she continuously seeks out ways to express her central thesis that lines are not real. Through drawing she suspends generalizations of concepts and ideas to systematically undo notions of the definite, categorization, and permanence. Nabila holds degrees in Architecture from Columbia University and the University of Puerto Rico in San Juan.