Africa blues (this is NOT about music) - nostalgy of an amazing country

I don't know how really to explain it, and I do not even know whether it is the appropriate term, but something that exists and creates a strong bond between travelers and Africa as they come back to their countries.
I suppose that everyone has a different feeling about it, but once you visit one of the African countries, you will never be able to forget it. The memories will always come back to tease you, and you will feel the need to go back. It might be that Africa is stealing our hearts, enchanting our senses and shaking our foreigner's point of view.
One way or another, like a siren, it calls back, and we need to respond to that call, and the call gets stronger and stronger if you don’t answer.
For me, it is bound to many things that attracted me and makes me think about each and every country I have been visiting with sweet nostalgia.
It is the red sand:

Sierra Leone

That bright fine reddish sand that gets the color from the high iron content in the soil, and its distinctive smell, of rust and of soil burning under the sun. A smell that I can't describe but that makes me feel like home. It enticed me so much that every time I hear talking about Africa, that sand comes to my mind, with all the memories I can associate. It is something that permeated through my skin to my soul, and it is one reason I need to go back.
It is on the great plains of the African Savannah:

Ethiopia

That endless monotone plain changing its colors incredibly with the seasons, getting yellow and dry during the dry season and flourishing with bright green during the wet season.

It is a place where my mind loves to lose itself into memories of my past, sometimes those seem so far to resemble the memories of even another life, in another place far from my home country. It is like I can see a possible past, one of the many that could happen or that perhaps happened during another life. 

It is on the discovery of the wildlife:

Mountains Gorilla at the Virunga Park (Democratic Republic of Congo)

Zimbabwe

Djibouti

Those are the animals that generally we can see in documentaries, and we wonder how it might be to face them, at least one in a lifetime. It is indeed a strong feeling being in front of such beautiful creatures, and when some of them are endangered like in the case of the mountain gorillas, then the feelings get very strong. For me, the day when I faced the gorillas was one of the most intense in my whole life. It made me rethink about the damage we, as human beings, are posing to other species. Bringing one species to the brink of the extinction by restricting their habitat, over hunting their natural preys or hunting them for their furs, is something that I consider despicable.

It is on the positivity of the people and their colorful markets:

Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone

All of this makes "my Africa" the one I keep very dearly in my heart, and the one I will never forget, to which I promise to come back time to time. looking for new places or simply visiting those who had a deep impact in my way of seeing the world. Those places and people that made me change my point of view to a wider and more global.

Those people, whose simple life made me rethink about my lifestyle and helped me to move further in the research of that lost simplicity I am now aiming to day after day.

With those considerations, the Wandering Writer is wishing you the best weekend ever, and if you are in the area affected by the Hurricane Irma, stay safe. A lot of my thoughts are with you in this critical moment.