The Departing Boat

When the landscape had been painted, the composition did not hold.
So he placed a single figure in it.
Not large.
Without a name.
Just like a dot.
It was placed there to hold the surface together.
The figure has no face.
A person with bowed head.
An old man leaning on a staff.
The landscape was the main thing, and the person was only an ornament.
But a strange thing happened.
That small person began to rule the whole surface.
Occupying less than one percent, he commanded all the rest.
A single dot.
The smaller that dot, the deeper the solitude grew.
Others said:
That person looks just like a self-portrait.
He did not deny it.
With that single phrase, everything became clear.
That nameless person was anyone,
and in the end the painter himself.
The dot he added to hold the painting together
held him all his life.