Faial Island, also known in English as Fayal, is a Portuguese island of the Central Group (Portuguese: Grupo Central) of the Azores.
With its nearest neighbours, Pico (east across the channel) and São Jorge (northeast across the channel), it forms an area commonly known as the Trianglo (English: Triangle). The island has also referred to as the Ilha Azul (English: Blue Island), derived from the writings of Portuguese poet Raul Brandão, due to the large quantity of hydrangeas that bloom during the summer months:
"The man that had the idea to border the road with these plants should have a statue on the island. In no other place, do they prosper better: they need a covering of light, humidity and heat...they are in their place. Their blue, is the blue that adorns the Azores on lipid days...this is a blue that is even more blue, the bunches of flowers of a colour more intense and more fresh. They are in every direction: rising along the roads and the fields forming hedges; they serve to divide the parcels and to cover the peaceful animals."
—Raul Brandão, As Ilhas Desconhecidas (1926), p.33
Read more about Faial Island: History, Economy, Architecture
Famous quotes containing the word island:
“The shifting islands! who would not be willing that his house should be undermined by such a foe! The inhabitant of an island can tell what currents formed the land which he cultivates; and his earth is still being created or destroyed. There before his door, perchance, still empties the stream which brought down the material of his farm ages before, and is still bringing it down or washing it away,—the graceful, gentle robber!”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)