Fuente

This image reminds me of my childhood. When I was a little girl, once or twice a year my father would take my brothers, my mother and I for a walk on the beach.

On many occasions these little jellyfish would show up on the seashore. They are beautiful but they have a peculiar habit of sticking to people's bodies, maybe it’s that they feel attacked and for that reason they rub their particular extensions to the human body.

Needless to say that, since we who live near the sea are small people, our parents teach us to respect these creatures of the sea and to stay away from them. Why? Apart from the fact that they are obviously beautiful and have undulating movements because they don’t have fins like fish, they are also producers of a toxin that is very irritating to human skin.

They produce itching and pain and of course the affected area turns a strong red color. An adult person can bear the pain produced with greater fortitude but for a child this pain is truly traumatic.

I had to experience this sensation a few times but that was not a reason for me to forget to go swimming in the sea. I just had to take precautions before going swimming and check the area where I was going to splash in.

There is a home-made remedy for those who live near the sea and are affected by their toxin, just put some warm sand on the affected area and rub the wound. Another thing that they said worked… was to pour some urine on the affected area.

I want to say that either option for me was unpleasant but it did work on me and ended my pain in a short time, to the point that I quickly forgot about the pain and jumped to the seas again, not without checking the sea surface first so as not to fall into the same thing.

These are my childhood memories that brought the image of the jellyfish to my mind. This is my entry to the contest: a picture is worth a thousand words. My childhood.

I'm @gertu from Venezuela to the world.