Writing about something you don't understand is difficult. That's how I feel when I take on the task I've set myself: reviving the diaries of a distant relative, an archaeologist, who mysteriously disappeared around century ago. He left behind a trail of notes that still unsettle me, though I'm not entirely sure they weren't written with the intention of creating a literary work.

These diaries, though full of detail and insight typical of a scientific approach, depict events that simply couldn't have happened. My relative, if family accounts are to be believed, simply disappeared one day. On the one hand, this shouldn't be surprising-given his work-but on the other, he always prepared for expeditions, and these preparations usualy took weeks.

This story, told with unflinching honesty, begins in 1912, during a scientific expedition into the heart of the African jungle. In a diary whose pages are a testament to his extraordinary experiences, my relative describes his discoveries and his struggles with the wilderness.

Among his notes, however, there appears an item that made a particularly strong impression on him – an amulet. This small object, though mentioned several times, remains in memory solely thanks to entries in his diary. It was an amulet made of an unknown material, according to the jewelers he consulted. This material resembled glass of extraordinary strength, and within it rested a moth, the family symbol of our ancestors, hidden in their familyname. The amulet itself, according to these same jewelers, had no value as it was not a known gemstone, so for the family, it was merely a memento of sorts.

These same jewelers claimed it wasn't a hundred-year-old work of art, yet they couldn't explain the moth's presence inside. I tried to consult these accounts with people who know about materials, and I searched the internet-the conclusion remains the same-the explanations border on absurdity.

Although the journals don't contain any detailed sketches of the artifacts, creatures, or places my cousin describes, my imagination continues to run wild. An inner impulse leads me to create my own visions, which, though I feel otherwise, may be far from what he actually saw. The photo below is my work, which I hope reflects the appearance of the amulet's gem.

As I delve deeper into this story, I feel I am getting closer to understanding my cousin's motivations and desires. Certain things in the diaries raise concerns of an aesthetic or moral nature - I will not hide them, as this would compromise my impartiality, but I will allow myself to omit fragments that are irrelevant to the story itself. I'll occasionally add my own comments. This endeavor is partly driven by my need to document and share what I've found, so I'll attempt to verify some of the facts whenever possible. In subsequent entries, which I will be translating and adding successively, I will take you on a journey through the pages of the diary, where reality takes on a slightly different hue than we are accustomed to. So I give the floor to my relative...