Areia Que Andou

[Verse 1]
The ferry cut the morning mist, a dull knife's edge and spray,
Ten years washed ashore, but the shore still looked the same way.
The old men mending nets, their backs bent to the tide,
Just like the pictures in my mind, where time had gone to hide.
The red earth still bled into the sand, by the cashew trees so tall,
And the faint echo of capoeira drums, a familiar, distant call.

[Chorus]
This old Vila dos Ventos ain't changed a bit, no, not a single grain,
But the currents in my soul, they've weathered a different rain.
Yeah, I'm tasting salt on the wind, but it hits me a brand new way,
This town stayed anchored, but I drifted, day by forgotten day.

[Verse 2]
The reef still guards the old fishing grounds, a secret in the blue,
And the waves still whisper stories, like they always used to do.
I walked past Dona Rosa's house, her bougainvillea still in bloom,
She offered me strong coffee, chased away the lingering gloom.
But the shifting sand beneath my feet, it felt like foreign ground,
Like a melody I knew by heart, but with a different sound.

[Bridge]
My old boat, 'Saudade', still tied up at the quay,
But the ropes that bind my spirit, they don't hold the same for me.
I chased horizons, wild and wide, beyond the coastal line,
And brought back scars the ocean gave, a wisdom bittersweet and mine.

[Outro]
Yeah, I came back home, but home's in me now, somewhere deep inside,
And the man I left behind, he's just a ghost upon the tide.