30 October 2025
You look at the two tall transparent glasses in front of you. A shiny metal stirrer rests between them. Your gaze settles on the glass that stands on the left, two thirds full of the liquid known as black gold. You close your eyes and draw a deep breath in. The scent of coffee surges through your nose and hurtles straight to the sensory part of your brain. When you open your eyes again, your attention drifts to the right. A glass of milk, still, with a soft shimmer at the surface reflecting the light above you.
Your hand wraps itself around this cup and you gently pour the creamy milk into the other cup, layering it over the coffee. As it settles, it begins to extend its tendrils into the dark liquid – white-reflecting molecules edging their way into the space between the ones that absorb the light, drawn downwards by gravity, seeking to spread through all the space available … the power of diffusion.
You take the stirrer, cold to the touch, and slowly immerse it into the cup, watching it pierce the coffee and the milk rushing in to fill the new space that is being created – a spearhead of light plunging into darkness. And you stir, once, turning the cup into a stage full of dancers as white tendrils whirl around black ones. Lines become swirls. Tiny galaxies of milk form in the universe of coffee – moving closer, then spinning apart.
As your gaze remains fixed, your eyes are drawn to what remains of the black coffee at the bottom of the cup. You stir the mixture only halfway round, watching as the dark liquid extends upwards, meeting the milk – a furtive touch that changes both. Black touches white and they both turn to brown, creating space for another encounter, another merging, another union that changes both.
After what feels like a lifetime, you are staring at a tall glass of evenly distributed brown liquid. No more tendrils. No more dancers. A café latte.
Just like a café latte, we all have our beginning. And we all have our end. Yet, the most beautiful moment is the time in between – the myriads of encounters between milk and coffee and the dance they create: our life.
Photo credits: Muhammad Saifulloh