“The river has turned red!” shouted Galinos. Pantzios was rowing slowly, looking straight ahead, and paid him no attention. “And it’s getting redder!” Pantzios turned, ready to mock him. To tell him that his mind was clouded by the letters and novels he read and that he was seeing dreams while awake. Of course, he would soften the roughness of his words as much as possible, since he was in the service of his godfather Galinos and had to show the appropriate respect. However, casting his gaze towards the estuaries of the Pyxitis or Daphne River, he opened his eyes wide. Like one is startled by the unexpected events of life. “What the hell!” he exclaimed. Then he began to row towards the shore until the boat ran aground on the sandy bottom. “I’m going to see what’s going on. Keep an eye out!” he urged him, and jumped into the water. He reached the beach, stood for a moment at the river’s mouth, and then walked quickly along the bank until the few plane trees and willows hid him.

With this scene, Galinos Philonidis began to tell me his life story. I decided to put his story on paper. Why, you ask? I asked myself countless times and the answer was always the same: To get to know him better by following step by step every experience of his. Also, because I believe many will benefit from his passions and sufferings. As for who I am to tell you this, the time will come to reveal it. They had traveled the day before to Hotzi, the former village of Kymina, in order to procure hazelnuts. The area was famous for its round hazelnuts, the “leptokarya” from the Turkish, and the producers kept large quantities in their barns from last year’s harvest. The reason was the turmoil caused in the markets by the European War, later called the First World War, and the fact that from November 1914 the Ottoman Empire sided with Germany.