καιρός remembered

Memento mori

When we walk through a cemetery, we may well be glad that we still belong to the world of the living, but it inevitably reminds us of our own mortality. This is certainly true of the Portuguese Jewish cemetery near Amsterdam. Many gravestones feature images symbolising death: an hourglass running out (and which can no longer be turned over); an axe cleaving a tree trunk; a human skull. The skull in the photograph, with rainwater and dead leaves in its eye sockets, leaves little room for doubt: this is what awaits us all.

Photo of the week: Beth Haim Cemetery, Ouderkerk aan de Amstel, Netherlands 1995