Indonesia

I took the trip to Indonesia together with my family. My father was born on East Java, near Malang, where my grandfather used to have a school. They went back to the Netherlands when my father was five years old. We took this trip shortly after my grandmother died. It was the first time he returned to Indonesia.

The moment we got off the plane, I recognised the smell. A mix of jasmine, something sweet or spicy, and perhaps the kretek cigarettes… It was precisely how my old grandma’s house used to smell.