"Udo Between Tides: An Afternoon with Haenyeo Catching Moonlight"

When the salty, fishy sea breeze hit my face, I realized I was standing at the northernmost tip of Udo Island. The tide chart showed it was low tide, and the exposed rock crevices were filled with greenish seawater. Several mudskippers hopped on the mudflat, and the splashing water droplets refracted light like broken diamonds in the sun. The most unexpected encounter came from a haenyeo grandma. When she emerged from the crest of the wave, her silver hair was covered with pearl-like water droplets, and the bamboo basket around her waist swayed heavily. "Little girl, would you like to try some sea grapes I just caught?" As the salty seaweed burst on the tip of my tongue, she was picking barnacles with a bamboo stick, and the sound of the knife cutting through the green shell was like playing a tidal movement. Walking south along the cliffside path, I met three stray cats entrenched in the shadow of an abandoned lighthouse. Their fur color was integrated with the rusty iron sheet, until I threw out the sea grape residue, and their amber pupils suddenly lit up. When I bent down to feed them, my trouser legs were wet with salty sea foam. When I turned my head, I saw the entire bay shimmering with gold in the sunset - that kind of beauty that made me want to cry. Later, I learned that it was what the locals called the "Haeundae Mirage." When the return ferry sounded its whistle, the grandma waved her faded headscarf at me from the dock. The outline of Udo Island gradually sank into the twilight, but the salty sea breeze, the crisp sound of the mudskippers jumping, and the marine memory of sea grapes bursting between my teeth were like being forever engraved in the palm of my hand by the tide.